Recent searches
Search options
Administered by:
Hard to explain how devastating I find this. I'm going to simply choose not to believe it. At the very least I reckon they'd bang out a couple of Dan Browns.
@TheBreadmonkey DID THEY USE INFINITE MONKEYS THO?!
@dogwonder 
ETA: no they didn't. @TheBreadmonkey
@TheBreadmonkey I am sorry but when I say the headline, my first thought was, with all the serious problems in today's world, they are wasting brain power on this?
However, I suppose we all need to distract ourselves from real life, eh. Sort of like doing crossword puzzles...exercising the brain.
@TheBreadmonkey statisticians prove that statistics don't always apply to the real world and thought experiments are just thought experiments, shock horror.
I hope they weren't paid for pointing out the blitheringly obvious.
@Extelec @TheBreadmonkey "Associate Prof" - they're (at least in part) paid to generate words on papers... maybe they were investigating whether they could outsource this to monkeys, but were disappointed to find that there are neither infinite monkeys (or even chimps) or time... maths professors are not exactly recognised for their firm grasp on the real world.
@Extelec @TheBreadmonkey
“It is not plausible that, even with improved typing speeds or an increase in chimpanzee populations, monkey labour will ever be a viable tool for developing non-trivial written works,” the study says.
Egad. This must have been a tongue in cheek thing. No one is that humourless.
@TheBreadmonkey
The headline is misleading! The study simply shows that the "enough time" in "given enough time" is greater than the remaining lifespan of the universe. And there remains the probability, though small, that the monkeys could bang out the complete Shakespeare before the universe ends.
I'm with you. Let's take these statisticians down!
@TheBreadmonkey
In truth I'm jealous of the study. It's simple math you or I could have done, and it's a good candidate for an Ig Nobel Prize. Including the world population of chimps is the icing on the cake.
@TheBreadmonkey Hitherto, chimps have been limited to flinging poo, because nobody has given them an infinite supply of Dan Browns.
Hey, a new metonym for shit.
@TheBreadmonkey
Take solace that '[t]here would be a 5% chance that a single chimp would successfully type the word "bananas" in its own lifetime.'
I will sleep easy tonight
@TheBreadmonkey you might also be interested in the Library of Babel, which contains everything ever written or ever will be written: https://libraryofbabel.info/book.cgi?0-w1-s1-v01:1
@TheBreadmonkey
but an ape already 𝘥𝘪𝘥 produce the complete works of shakespeare, and it didn't really take that long, involve very many apes or even use any typewriters at all, so stick that up your clay pipe and smoke it, maths
@TheBreadmonkey They may well have banged out all the Dan Browns, it’d be a reasonable explanation for them.