A new study reveals it would take far longer than the lifespan of our universe for a typing monkey to randomly produce Shakespeare. So, while the Infinite Monkey Theorem is true, it is also somewhat misleading.

The question that everyone has been dying to know has been answered. Finally! What will scientists study next?

  • Eager Eagle@lemmy.worldEnglish
    16·
    16 days ago

    the paper used the entire population (200 thousand) and would take some 10 ^ 10 ^ 7 heat deaths of the universe

    • Nougat@fedia.io
      42·
      16 days ago

      It could happen the very first time a monkey sat down at a typewriter. It’s just very unlikely.

        • Nougat@fedia.io
          371·
          16 days ago

          … the probability of the monkeys replicating even a single page of Shakespeare is unfathomably small.

          But not zero.

        • Ookami38@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
          10·
          16 days ago

          Weird how neither of those numbers are infinities. Almost like the numbers used are unfathomably small in comparison.

        • scarabic@lemmy.worldEnglish
          4·
          16 days ago

          So you’re telling me… there’s a chance!

          Sorry, I’m sort of lampooning comments like the one above and below you where people just can’t resist focusing on the possibility, no matter how ridiculously remote it seems. For myself, there’s a point of “functionally zero odds” that I’m willing to accept and move on with my life.

      • 0x0@programming.devEnglish
        3·
        16 days ago

        Let’s put them in open spaces in offices and micro-mananage then, that’ll work.

      • Eager Eagle@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        16 days ago

        I don’t think it’s a constraint, it’s more like a measuring stick to try to show how ridiculously long that time is