# I pit the "infinite" monkeys study **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [November 2, 2024, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-infinite-monkeys-study/1009573 "2024-11-02T03:59:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2024, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-infinite-monkeys-study/1009573/21 "2024-11-02T15:49:36Z")
I think they need to spend a weekend in Hilbert’s Grand Hotel and I recommend they do not use Zeno’s taxi service to get there. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2024, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-infinite-monkeys-study/1009573/22 "2024-11-02T15:51:51Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > The real headline here is “Two Mathematicians Don’t Understand What Infinity Is”. How about “Two mathematicians abuse the academic system in so-far successful attempt to become internet celebrities and cash in on their new-found STEM populizer personas.” It’s kinda long for a head, but it might be a sub-head or lede. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2024, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-infinite-monkeys-study/1009573/23 "2024-11-02T15:58:13Z")
Hey, I’ve written several books hunt-and-pecking. Good books, too, and in less time than infinity. My father had a pet spider monkey, which he gave up when I was born, so it all makes sense. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2024, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-infinite-monkeys-study/1009573/24 "2024-11-02T16:06:08Z")
> [@crowmanyclouds](#): > > I think they need to spend a weekend in Hilbert’s Grand Hotel and I recommend they do not use Zeno’s taxi service to get there. Can they eat at Cantor’s Table? ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2024, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-infinite-monkeys-study/1009573/25 "2024-11-02T16:24:59Z")
Sea monkeys? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2024, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-infinite-monkeys-study/1009573/26 "2024-11-02T16:25:57Z")
Something like twenty years ago there was a distributed computing thing called the Million Monkeys Project. Your computer was comparing random strings of letters to the text of Shakespeare’s works and, as I remember, noting any match of ten characters, though I only ever found a few matches. ---
**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2024, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-infinite-monkeys-study/1009573/27 "2024-11-02T16:42:14Z")
> [@crowmanyclouds](#): > > Hilbert’s Grand Hotel I look forward to the follow up economics paper analyzing how financially unfeasible it would be running housekeeping in an infinite hotel. ---
**Author:** ![DavidNRockies](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidnrockies/32/6279_2.png) [@DavidNRockies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidNRockies)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2024, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-infinite-monkeys-study/1009573/28 "2024-11-02T16:44:54Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Something like twenty years ago there was a distributed computing thing called the Million Monkeys Project. See (a quick and worthwhile read): > **[A Million Monkeys Demonstrate the Power of Hadoop - GovLoop](https://www.govloop.com/community/blog/a-million-monkeys-demonstrate-the-power-of-hadoop/)** > > There are many great use cases for Apache Hadoop, the open source framework for scalable, reliable, and distributed computing on commodity hardware built around Hadoop Distributed File System and MapReduce, such as delivering search engine results,... ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2024, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-infinite-monkeys-study/1009573/29 "2024-11-02T16:51:26Z")
I endorse this pitting along with a secondary pit to the Guardian for posting about scientific papers without mentioning which journal has standards low enough to publish what amounts to a homework assignment for an intro to probability class. In other news, strip mining by [bird beak](https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/255110-high-in-the-north-in-a-land-called-svithjod-there) has been deemed infeasible. ETA: Looking through several other sources (has no one in the media heard of presenting primary sources) I finally found one that linked to the [paper](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2773186324001014?via%3Dihub#sec0004). And it is a bit more complicated than I thought because their paper adjusts for the possibility of monkeys producing multiple copies of Shakespeare, and for differences between N monkeys producing K strings vs one monkey producing an N\*K strings due to the multiple end points. So for actual application with shorter strings than Shakespeare this could be interesting and useful look at the efficiency of brute force trial end error. But for these side cases have an infinitesimal effect on the case that they claim to be evaluating in their paper. And by couching the potentially useful finding in a clickbaity premise it gets completely lost. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2024, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-infinite-monkeys-study/1009573/30 "2024-11-02T18:59:58Z")
> [@griffin1977](#): > > I look forward to the follow up economics paper analyzing how financially unfeasible it would be running housekeeping in an infinite hotel. If seven maids with seven mops swept it for half a year… ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2024, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-infinite-monkeys-study/1009573/31 "2024-11-02T20:06:34Z")
Yep… . ---
**Author:** ![Stratocaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stratocaster/32/16393_2.png) [@Stratocaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stratocaster)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2024, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-infinite-monkeys-study/1009573/32 "2024-11-02T20:38:30Z")
The definitive study: > **[Researchers Tested Whether Infinite Monkeys Could Write Shakespeare, With...](https://www.iflscience.com/researchers-tested-whether-infinite-monkeys-could-write-shakespeare-with-actual-monkeys-62587)** > > Researchers Tested Whether Infinite Monkeys Could Write Shakespeare, With Actual Monkeys > [@](#): > > As for actual monkeys, they have actually been given the task before, just to see what they would do. In 2002, the University of Plymouth got funding to put a keyboard in the monkey enclosure at Paignton Zoo in Devon, England. The monkeys, and we’re really being fair to them here, were awful. After a month, all they had produced was a string of letters, mainly the letter ‘s’, and there was only one vowel in the whole document – ‘a’. > > What’s more, the alpha male became irate and started smashing the keyboard with a stone, whilst other monkeys took a poop on it. I hope this puts the question to rest. ---
**Author:** ![DavidNRockies](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidnrockies/32/6279_2.png) [@DavidNRockies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidNRockies)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2024, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-infinite-monkeys-study/1009573/33 "2024-11-02T20:58:09Z")
Alright. We’ll call it a draw. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2024, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-infinite-monkeys-study/1009573/34 "2024-11-02T20:58:41Z")
> [@Stratocaster](#): > > I hope this puts the question to rest. Yep. Shakespeare is Shit. 😁 ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2024, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-infinite-monkeys-study/1009573/35 "2024-11-02T22:04:43Z")
I’m guessing that the number of monkeys and the number of typewriters was \< ♾. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2024, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-infinite-monkeys-study/1009573/36 "2024-11-02T22:22:41Z")
> [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](#): > > If seven maids with seven mops swept it for half a year… I’m imagining a hotel inhabited by a vast number of monkeys. It’s gonna take a lot of maids to manage all the flung poo. Whatever else can be said of typing monkeys, careful hygiene and genteel habits are not among them. ---
**Author:** ![Everlong88](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/everlong88/32/17800_2.png) [@Everlong88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Everlong88)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2024, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-infinite-monkeys-study/1009573/37 "2024-11-02T23:57:04Z")
Well not Shakespeare but they might be able to write the script for Caddyshack 2. ---
**Author:** ![Stratocaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stratocaster/32/16393_2.png) [@Stratocaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stratocaster)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2024, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-infinite-monkeys-study/1009573/38 "2024-11-03T00:25:09Z")
> [@susan](#): > > I’m guessing that the number of monkeys and the number of typewriters was \< ♾. I still consider the experiment an unqualified success. The line about the alpha male may be the greatest sentence ever composed, even if written by a non-monkey. This was relatable science, people, not the usual dry, eggheaded snooze fest. I learned a lot. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2024, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-infinite-monkeys-study/1009573/39 "2024-11-03T00:33:46Z")
Would they write a script “Planet of the Humans” Then _Monkeywood_ gets a hold of it and puts Ape actors in crappy Human masks. With poor plot and subplot and a terrible ending and then a franchise that just won’t stop. Gah!!! The grass in the ass is sounding better and better. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2024, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-infinite-monkeys-study/1009573/41 "2024-11-03T03:20:55Z")
> The text of _Hamlet_ contains approximately 130,000 letters.[[d]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infinite_monkey_theorem#cite_note-8) Thus, there is a probability of one in 3.4 × 10^183,946 to get the text right at the first trial. The average number of letters that needs to be typed until the text appears is also 3.4 × 10183,946,[[e]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infinite_monkey_theorem#cite_note-9) or including punctuation, 4.4 × 10^360,783.[[f]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infinite_monkey_theorem#cite_note-10) Over the course of infinity even those numbers are nothing. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-infinite-monkeys-study/1009573.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-infinite-monkeys-study/1009573.md?page=3)