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Infintiy Infintiy Infintiy Infintiy Infintiy Infintiy Infintiy Infintiy (mander.xyz)

submitted 1 month ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Just thinking at a high level, an infinite number of monkies should hypothetically almost instantly produce Shakespeare (or at least as quickly as they can type)

Conversely, 1 monkey would eventually produce it given infinity time.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago (3 children)

1 monkey would likely die before producing Shakespeare

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago

oh absolutely, this is purely a thought experiment of course.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

not if it’s an infinite monkey

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Well, an infinite amount would.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago (2 children)

So as weird as it sounds not all infinities are equal. For example there is an infinite set of odd numbers. That set will never include the number 2 though.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

Two is the loneliest number?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

OK but what if we had one monkey typing away for every real number between zero and one?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago (2 children)

One monkey may never produce it even given infinite time. It could just produce an infinite string of the letter a and never change it's mind. That's less likely that it writing hamlet, or even many hamlets... But nonetheless, it could. In fact all of the infinite monkeys could do that. If you repeated the experiment and infinite number of times, it's likely that one of them will simple produce an infinite number of infinite strings of only the letter A. Or, idk, ASCII art.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 month ago (1 children)

This is the same type of criticism the paper made. The real intent behind the saying is given random output (where all outputs have nonzero probability) eventually you will create anything/everything.

Its a thought experiment around infinity, probability, and art.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

Yeah, I haven't read whatever paper this is talking about, but I imagine, it's looking at the saying in a more literal fashion for the sake of argument...

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

That's why a monkey is used in the thought experiment. Monkeys do think at a low level. As it goes insane over centuries of imprisonment in front of its jailer, it's likely going to try complex solutions to get out. Think of the hell infinity would really be for this monkey.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

Yes, and given infinite monkeys no doubt they will eventually evolve into something that allows them to escape!