2014-04-26 10:52:28 -04:00
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Infinite-Monkey Theorem
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2014-04-26 11:54:15 -04:00
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n. If you put an infinite number of monkeys at typewriters, eventually one
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will bash out the script for Hamlet. (One may also hypothesize a small
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number of monkeys and a very long period of time.) This theorem asserts
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nothing about the intelligence of the one random monkey that eventually
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comes up with the script (and note that the mob will also type out all the
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possible incorrect versions of Hamlet). It may be referred to semi-seriously
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when justifying a brute force method; the implication is that, with enough
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resources thrown at it, any technical challenge becomes a one-banana
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problem. This argument gets more respect since Linux justified the bazaar
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mode of development. Other hackers maintain that the Infinite-Monkey Theorem
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cannot be true otherwise Usenet would have reproduced the entire canon of
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great literature by now. In mid-2002, researchers at Plymouth Univesity in
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England actually put a working computer in a cage with six crested macaques.
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The monkeys proceeded to bash the machine with a rock, urinate on it, and
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type the letter S a lot (later, the letters A, J, L, and M also crept in).
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The results were published in a limited-edition book, Notes Towards The
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Complete Works of Shakespeare. A researcher reported: They were quite
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interested in the screen, and they saw that when they typed a letter,
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something happened. There was a level of intention there. Scattered field
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reports that there are AOL users this competent have been greeted with
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well-deserved skepticism. This theorem has been traced to the mathematiciamn
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mile Borel in 1913, and was first popularized by the astronomer Sir Arthur
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Eddington. It became part of the idiom of techies via the classic SF short
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story Inflexible Logic by Russell Maloney, and many younger hackers know it
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through a reference in Douglas Adams's Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
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Some other references have been collected on the Web. On 1 April 2000 the
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usage acquired its own Internet standard, RFC2795 (Infinite Monkey Protocol
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Suite).
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