# Infinite Monkeys **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 7, 2004, 9:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/infinite-monkeys/278519 "2004-12-07T09:47:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Bernard\_Marx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4491bb/32.png) [@Bernard\_Marx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bernard_Marx)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2004, 9:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/infinite-monkeys/278519/1 "2004-12-07T09:47:10Z")
I’m trying to find the title of a short story I read a long time ago. It started out with two guys discussing the well known fact that an infinite number of monkeys, typing for an infinite amount of time, would eventually rewrite the works of Shakespeare, letter for letter (as well as all the rest of the world’s literature). Anyway, one of the guys obviously doesn’t know that this is only a thought experiment, because he gets about a thousand monkeys and sets them to work typing. Instead of producing gibberish, however, they really do start reproducing the world’s literature. One of them, of course, is working on Shakespeare, othersare working on the early books of the New Testament or some of Baudelaire’s letters etc The second guy comes back a week later and is amazed to see what’s going on. The fact that the experiment “worked” is so at odds with his worldview that he goes crazy and kills all the monkeys. Anyone read this story or know the title/author? ---
**Author:** ![cryptic\_j](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/898d66/32.png) [@cryptic\_j](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cryptic_j)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2004, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/infinite-monkeys/278519/2 "2004-12-07T12:31:02Z")
I haven’t read this story - - but I love the idea… I had an idea for a short story involving the infinite monkeys - - so I’d love to read this to check that I wouldn’t be inadvertantly copying… … does anyone know who originally came up with the infinite monkey idea in the first place.? I am a finite monkey ---
**Author:** ![Cliffy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/59ef9b/32.png) [@Cliffy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cliffy)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2004, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/infinite-monkeys/278519/3 "2004-12-07T15:13:54Z")
Gosh, I thought you were going to ask about the sci-fi story about the author who uses a monkey hooked in to a typwriter to convince his editor that his story is well-written. –Cliffy ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2004, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/infinite-monkeys/278519/4 "2004-12-07T15:25:51Z")
The story is called [_Inflexible Logic_ by Russell Maloney](http://www.janda.org/c10/readings/monkeys.htm). The six chimpanzees (not a thousand monkeys) produce typo-free copies of _Oliver Twist_, as well as: > [@](#): > > “Oh, yes, all writing books which I have every reason to believe are in the British Museum. The prose of John Donne, some Anatole France, Conan Doyle, Galen, the collected plays of Somerset Maugham, Marcel Proust, the memoirs of the late Marie of Rumania, and a monograph by a Dr. Wiley on the marsh grasses of Maine and Massachusetts. I can sum it up for you, Mallard, by telling you that since I started this experiment, four weeks and some days ago, none of the chimpanzees has spoiled a single sheet of paper.” ---
**Author:** ![cryptic\_j](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/898d66/32.png) [@cryptic\_j](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cryptic_j)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2004, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/infinite-monkeys/278519/5 "2004-12-07T16:25:46Z")
so… have I misremembered the orginial infinte monkeys thing? was it always six with infinite time… or is this just an adaptation of that… because obviously it’s the time not the monkeys that make the difference - - it just take 6 monkeys longer than an infinite number… so they would take infinity \* 6. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Carnage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/max_carnage/32/12775_2.png) [@Max\_Carnage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Carnage)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2004, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/infinite-monkeys/278519/6 "2004-12-07T17:35:58Z")
Wasn’t there an Amazing Stories episode that used this premise? ---
**Author:** ![Fiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e274bd/32.png) [@Fiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiver)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2004, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/infinite-monkeys/278519/7 "2004-12-07T19:01:05Z")
There’s also a play by David Ives titled “[Words, Words, Words](http://www.playdatabase.com/play.asp?play=91E97F80-28F8-4677-A1D7-48E9F99D9A0A)” which takes this concept and runs with it. ---
**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:** [December 7, 2004, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/infinite-monkeys/278519/8 "2004-12-07T19:49:38Z")
Also, there is a distributed computing project called the [Monkey Shakespeare Simulator](http://user.tninet.se/~ecf599g/aardasnails/java/Monkey/webpages/index.html) that is attempting a virtual version of this experiment. The record is the first 22 letters from “Cymbeline” and this was after the equivalent of 579,440 billion billion billion monkey-years. ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_Dirx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b77776/32.png) [@Sir\_Dirx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_Dirx)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2004, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/infinite-monkeys/278519/9 "2004-12-07T19:59:12Z")
Wouldn’t an infinite amount of monkeys instantaneously produce all imaginable written works, past, present, future, and all gibberish in between? ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2004, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/infinite-monkeys/278519/10 "2004-12-07T20:03:54Z")
Who first said that the monkeys would type out Shakespeare? I just want to know. ---
**Author:** ![Raygun99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Raygun99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raygun99)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2004, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/infinite-monkeys/278519/11 "2004-12-07T20:07:01Z")
> [@Zebra](#): > > Who first said that the monkeys would type out Shakespeare? > > I just want to know. If this thread goes on for an infinite length of time, eventually someone will type it. ---
**Author:** ![Labdad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/439d5e/32.png) [@Labdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labdad)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2004, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/infinite-monkeys/278519/12 "2004-12-07T20:07:45Z")
For the first time ever, I saw this thread title and instantly thought: BAND NAME!! ---
**Author:** ![Shade](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2bfe46/32.png) [@Shade](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shade)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2004, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/infinite-monkeys/278519/13 "2004-12-07T20:11:48Z")
> [@Sir Dirx](#): > > Wouldn’t an infinite amount of monkeys instantaneously produce all imaginable written works, past, present, future, and all gibberish in between? Not if you assume there’s a lower limit on the time it takes to hit a key. If you assume there’s a finite number of characters typable (else 'tis a whole 'nother ball game), then yeah, everything’ll get typed out immediately, (indeed, on infinitely many typewriters) but you still have to wait for it to get typed. ---
**Author:** ![Hyperelastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Hyperelastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hyperelastic)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2004, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/infinite-monkeys/278519/14 "2004-12-07T20:20:24Z")
> [@Dewey Finn](#): > > Also, there is a distributed computing project called the [Monkey Shakespeare Simulator](http://user.tninet.se/~ecf599g/aardasnails/java/Monkey/webpages/index.html) that is attempting a virtual version of this experiment. The record is the first 22 letters from “Cymbeline” and this was after the equivalent of 579,440 billion billion billion monkey-years. [peer reviewer] This simulation assumes that monkeys type randomly and at a uniform rate, but when I picture a monkey at a keyboard, I see him monotously banging the same key or group of keys over and over, and then running off to climb the curtains for a few minutes. Have the investigators compared actual records of monkey typing to confirm their assumption of randomness? [/peer reviewer] ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2004, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/infinite-monkeys/278519/15 "2004-12-07T20:35:14Z")
[C. Montgomery Burns] “It was the best of times, it was the \*blurst \* of times?!?” [/CMB] ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2004, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/infinite-monkeys/278519/16 "2004-12-07T21:28:56Z")
> [@Hyperelastic](#): > > [peer reviewer] > This simulation assumes that monkeys type randomly and at a uniform rate, but when I picture a monkey at a keyboard, I see him monotously banging the same key or group of keys over and over, and then running off to climb the curtains for a few minutes. Have the investigators compared actual records of monkey typing to confirm their assumption of randomness? > [/peer reviewer] Right. For all we know the monkeys might like to hit the “K” key over and over and over ad infinitum. To me, saying it’ll take infinite time to bang out Shakespeare is really saying you’ll have to wait forever… which is really saying never. Damn monkeys. ---
**Author:** ![yoyodyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/a9a28c/32.png) [@yoyodyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yoyodyne)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2004, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/infinite-monkeys/278519/17 "2004-12-07T21:40:13Z")
Infinite monkeys wouldn’t type everything instantaneously in any meaningful way. You would have to wait for one monkey to type _Hamlet_ all the way through. Otherwise you could just wait until any monkey typed all 26 letters and say they could be re-combined into any work. ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2004, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/infinite-monkeys/278519/18 "2004-12-07T21:46:45Z")
This one seems to confuse people, but given an infinite amount of monkeys and an infinite amount of time, it is logically possible that _no_work of Shakespeare will ever be reproduced. ---
**Author:** ![borschevsky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/97f17d/32.png) [@borschevsky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/borschevsky)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2004, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/infinite-monkeys/278519/19 "2004-12-07T22:01:59Z")
> [@yoyodyne](#): > > Infinite monkeys wouldn’t type everything instantaneously in any meaningful way. You would have to wait for one monkey to type _Hamlet_ all the way through. I’m not sure - each monkey typing one letter is the same number of letters as each monkey typing an infinite number of letters. You could line up the monkeys, have them each type a letter, and then read the letters off in order. ---
**Author:** ![nivlac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/3bc359/32.png) [@nivlac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nivlac)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2004, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/infinite-monkeys/278519/20 "2004-12-07T22:26:28Z")
> [@ultrafilter](#): > > This one seems to confuse people, but given an infinite amount of monkeys and an infinite amount of time, it is logically possible that _no_work of Shakespeare will ever be reproduced. Really? Even a finite number of monkeys typing an infinite amount of time will eventually type out every possible sequence of letters, punctuation marks, etc. It might take an awfully long time, but “infinite” time means no limit on time. Unless by “infinite”, you are restricted by the duration of the known universe. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/infinite-monkeys/278519.md?page=2)