Origin of 1000 Monkeys on Typewriters?

[Jinx]

What is the origin of the hypothetical 1000 monkeys on 1000 typewriters (give or take) randomly typing out the encyclopedia, or such? Where does this come from?

[Johnny_Bravo]

A dude named Émile Borel.

[Snowboarder_Bo]

AFAIK the original quote is from an essay by French mathematician (and politician) Émile Borel.

ETA: Ninja’d as I looked for a cite! Well done, Johnny Bravo!

[Johnny_Bravo]

Sometimes we monkeys get lucky.

[Jinx]

Thanks! So… have the monkeys won out, yet?

[Darren_Garrison]

@Jinx

Thanks! So… have the monkeys won out, yet?

No. Actually this is the blurst of times for them.

[Colibri]

@Jinx

Thanks! So… have the monkeys won out, yet?

No, but you can find some of their works on sale at airport bookstores everywhere.

[Riemann]

Here’s Bob Newhart.

Harry, I’m gonna check post 14, see if he’s got anything…

[terentii]

@Jinx

Thanks! So… have the monkeys won out, yet?

Only at some of the translation bureaus I’ve worked with. :rolleyes:

[Colibri]

@Jinx

Thanks! So… have the monkeys won out, yet?

Results of a pilot study with fewer monkeys were disappointing.

In 2003, lecturers and students from the University of Plymouth MediaLab Arts course used a £2,000 grant from the Arts Council to study the literary output of real monkeys. They left a computer keyboard in the enclosure of six Celebes crested macaques in Paignton Zoo in Devon in England for a month, with a radio link to broadcast the results on a website.[10]

Not only did the monkeys produce nothing but five total pages[11] largely consisting of the letter S, the lead male began by bashing the keyboard with a stone, and the monkeys continued by urinating and defecating on it.

The experiment was, however, declared a success as performance art.

[burpo_the_wonder_mutt]

^ Macaques? PFFFT! What do they know? They’re the Peter Benchley of the primate world!

[Ukulele_Ike]

See Russell Maloney’s 1940 New Yorker short story, “Inflexible Logic.” Marvelous comic take on the Infinite Monkeys Theory.

http://nsmn1.uh.edu/dgraur/Texts/logic.htm

[Bryan_Ekers]

@Ukulele_Ike

See Russell Maloney’s 1940 New Yorker short story, “Inflexible Logic.” Marvelous comic take on the Infinite Monkeys Theory.

Inflexible Logic by Russell Maloney (1940)

I first read that in the 1958 anthology Fantasia Mathematica, which I cannot recommend highly enough.

[Ukulele_Ike]

@Bryan_Ekers

I first read that in the 1958 anthology Fantasia Mathematica, which I cannot recommend highly enough.

Thanks for the tip; just bought a copy.

Clifton Fadiman curated the BEST anthologies!