Will monkeys really type Shakespeare if given enough time?

[sparkchaser]

Ahh, but why wouldn't you just end up with an infinite amount of gibberish?

You would but theoretically you'd eventually find order in the chaos.

 

[joderu95]

And not just Shakespeare but other classics like Warhammer 40k.

 

[sparkchaser]

And not just Shakespeare but other classics like Warhammer 40k.

Spess Mehreens!

 

[Bob Magness]

You would but theoretically you'd eventually find order in the chaos.

Have funs sorting through it all.

Then, theoretically, shouldn't it be possible to calculate just how long it would take given a certain number of monkeys and a specific piece of work given that there is a 1 in 26 chance of any given letter being typed and a specific number of letters in the given book? We can even leave out spaces and punctuation to "simplify" things? It is certainly beyond my ability or patience to figure out but I would imagine some mathematician out there has given it a go before. I don't think we need to throw "infinite" around to accomplish it.

 

[sparkchaser]

Have funs sorting through it all.

Ctrl+F

Then, theoretically, shouldn't it be possible to calculate just how long it would take given a certain number of monkeys and a specific piece of work given that there is a 1 in 26 chance of any given letter being typed and a specific number of letters in the given book? We can even leave out spaces and punctuation to "simplify" things? It is certainly beyond my ability or patience to figure out but I would imagine some mathematician out there has given it a go before. I don't think we need to throw "infinite" around to accomplish it.

It's certainly possible that you could figure it out. I'm not up to speed on my statistics but if we just had the 26 letters of the English alphabet and the space key, ignoring placement and key size, and assumed one keystroke per second and a random keystroke distribution, I think it would take 27^n seconds to type a given message of n length. I think. (I am waiting for a mathematician to swoop down and school me now).

If anything the experiment in the original post might shed light on key distribution, such as the fondness for the letter s.

 

[joderu95]

An even more interesting question (aside from the thread title) is could they create original works? I think yes.

In a related story, Steven Tyler may or may not be writing his autobiography.

 

[Peder]

It's a B--I--G number, for sure.

 

[saliotthomas]

An even more interesting question (aside from the thread title) is could they create original works? I think yes.

In a related story, Steven Tyler may or may not be writing his autobiography.

But he surely made his daughter(half of it anyway) and the man has some abilities.

 

[Fed_Da_Man]

It's certainly possible that you could figure it out. I'm not up to speed on my statistics but if we just had the 26 letters of the English alphabet and the space key, ignoring placement and key size, and assumed one keystroke per second and a random keystroke distribution, I think it would take 27^n seconds to type a given message of n length. I think. (I am waiting for a mathematician to swoop down and school me now).

it would take 27^n seconds to type all possible messages of length n but other than that ya you're right (i think you meant to say it would take 27^n seconds to be certain the message you wanted was typed). i don't think anyone would use that model though because the real life situation is much more complicated with all the other characters and the delete button and such