Keith Devens .com - Weblog: 1,000,000 Monkeys Producing Shakespeare

Monday, May 14, 2007

1,000,000 Monkeys Producing Shakespeare

People often use the proposition that "a million monkeys at a million typewriters will, if given long enough, eventually produce the works of Shakespeare" as a circumlocution for "random events will often produce meaningful output". But the works of Shakespeare as produced by monkeys are not the works of Shakespeare. Any meaning that the monkeys' version of the works of Shakespeare has is imparted to it by the reader. The letters themselves remain merely random arrangements of letters.

In fact, starting with monkeys typing letters begs the question because you're already beginning with atomic meaningful units. Why not start with words, sentences, or chapters?

Permalink | 2 Comments | Tags: Philosophy | id 8218

14:33 (utc-5)
edited: 14:52 (utc-5)

Comments

Nathaniel wrote:

The axiom also assumes that monkeys are a source of completely random entropy, which is unlikely. If you have a monkey with an infatuation with the X key, or that hates the A key, you'll never get Shakespeare. Not to mention the characters you can only get through non-obvious SHIFT + key combinations.

Sorry, being pedantic today.

∴ Nathaniel | 14-May-2007 3:50pm est | #10095

Frank Warner wrote:

This monkey test has been tried, but not with 1 million monkeys. In the test, the monkeys developed a fascination with the letter "S." They also peed on the keyboards.

So yes, authors must start with ideas, in sentences.

If these 1 million monkeys type even somewhat randomly over an infinite amount of time, they are 100 percent likely to produce Shakespeare. Trouble is, we average humans out here can't wait forever for the manuscripts, and then we couldn't pore through an infinite paper pile to find The Tempest.

It takes a human with an idea to produce such stuff as dreams are made on within a reasonable time. Monkeys won't ever do it.

∴ Frank Warner | 14-May-2007 11:51pm est | #10098

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