If you gave a hundred monkeys typewriters, that eventually they would type a line of Shakespeare...
From Wikipedia:
"The infinite monkey theorem states that a monkey hitting keys at random on a typewriter keyboard for an infinite amount of time will almost surely type a given text, such as the complete works of William Shakespeare.
In this context, "almost surely" is a mathematical term with a precise meaning, and the "monkey" is not an actual monkey, but a metaphor for an abstract device that produces a random sequence of letters ad infinitum.
The theorem illustrates the perils of reasoning about infinity by imagining a vast but finite number, and vice versa.
The probability of a monkey exactly typing a complete work such as Shakespeare's Hamlet is so tiny that the chance of it occurring during a period of time of the order of the age of the universe is minuscule, but not zero."
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Of course, people have spin-offs of this theory:
“I heard someone tried the monkeys-on-typewriters bit trying for the plays of W. Shakespeare, but all they got was the collected works of Francis Bacon.”
- Bill Hirst
“We've heard that a million monkeys at a keyboard could produce the Complete Works of Shakespeare; now, thanks to the Internet, we know this is not true.”
- Robert Wilensky
"Ford? There's an infinite number of monkeys outside who want to talk to us about this script for 'Hamlet' they've worked out.”
- Douglas Adams
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
"Dilbert writes a poem and presents it to Dogbert:
DOGBERT: I once read that given infinite time, a thousand monkeys with typewriters would eventually write the complete works of Shakespeare.
DILBERT: But what about my poem?
DOGBERT: Three monkeys, ten minutes."
-- Scott Adams, cartoonist
.........................
“I heard that if you locked William Shakespeare in a room with a typewriter for long enough,
he'd eventually write all the songs by the Monkeys.”
From Wikipedia:
"The infinite monkey theorem states that a monkey hitting keys at random on a typewriter keyboard for an infinite amount of time will almost surely type a given text, such as the complete works of William Shakespeare.
In this context, "almost surely" is a mathematical term with a precise meaning, and the "monkey" is not an actual monkey, but a metaphor for an abstract device that produces a random sequence of letters ad infinitum.
The theorem illustrates the perils of reasoning about infinity by imagining a vast but finite number, and vice versa.
The probability of a monkey exactly typing a complete work such as Shakespeare's Hamlet is so tiny that the chance of it occurring during a period of time of the order of the age of the universe is minuscule, but not zero."
............................................................
Of course, people have spin-offs of this theory:
“I heard someone tried the monkeys-on-typewriters bit trying for the plays of W. Shakespeare, but all they got was the collected works of Francis Bacon.”
- Bill Hirst
“We've heard that a million monkeys at a keyboard could produce the Complete Works of Shakespeare; now, thanks to the Internet, we know this is not true.”
- Robert Wilensky
"Ford? There's an infinite number of monkeys outside who want to talk to us about this script for 'Hamlet' they've worked out.”
- Douglas Adams
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
"Dilbert writes a poem and presents it to Dogbert:
DOGBERT: I once read that given infinite time, a thousand monkeys with typewriters would eventually write the complete works of Shakespeare.
DILBERT: But what about my poem?
DOGBERT: Three monkeys, ten minutes."
-- Scott Adams, cartoonist
.........................
“I heard that if you locked William Shakespeare in a room with a typewriter for long enough,
he'd eventually write all the songs by the Monkeys.”
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