If a million immortal monkeys typed on a million non-biodegradable english typewriters using an infinite amount of paper for all eternity, would they eventually write all the english books of the world?
eventually…
especially the bible
-Imp
Not necessarily, they can end up writing a very long series of A’s
Anyway there is this book by borges that speaks of something similar to this.
About a library with infinite books and the custodian attempts to write an infinite book.
I’m looking forward reading this story.
Remember, this is infinite, now is the time to stop thinking about what will happen in a million years, and start think what could happen 500 trillion million billion quadrill pentillion kazillion thousand hundred ten one years from now 
maybe they are still pushing that A button…
Assuming we don’t blow ourselves to smithereens in the meantime, we are, maybe, 1000 years from developing a vitual reality machine which is indistinguishable from the real thing. Once we can develop one we can make billions.
If only one intelligence has managed it the chances are billions to one that this isn’t a real world at all. Mathematically that’s a dead certainty.
I don’t see what infinity has to do with this. You can simply work out how long it would take.
JJ
Hey, don’t kill the messenger, I just heard it somewhere and wanted to see what you guys thought 
Ok, Iroel, A little modification thanks to you: The monkeys are RANDOMLY typing on the typewriter 
JJ, saying infinity is to cover any loopholes. You don’t have to put your initials down at the bottom, we can all very well see who you are.
but not without a clock, right?
I have to sign with my name JJ because I always did that on the other site I was on. You see, on some newsgroups on Outlook Express its sometimes hard to see who said what unless they type their name in. And I don’t want anyone nicking my ideas or its their arse.
JJ
If you want a clock to tell how long, yes. But you either have the novels or you don’t. There is no causal connection.
JJ
The assumption of infinite monkeys is unnecessary. All you need is one monkey, with an infinite amount of time.
Give me a break, answer the quetsion or stay out of the thread.
whats the question, is it possible? of course. you say infinity and lots of things are possible. quantum mechanics says that if i stand still here, sooner or later all of my particles will quantum leap onto your lap, with my fist molecules quantum leaping into your crotch, destroying both.
how long will it take? welllll thats simple. all you comp sci losers here know about hexadecimal. well instead of 16, make it base 29(the alphabet, period, space, comma). then your one page essay of 400 words is a 400 digit, base 29 number (novaventimel?) so your odds of your monkey typing that essay are 1:“It was the best of times, it was the blurst of times…” or 1:(your long novaventimel number).
multiply how long it takes to type one page by your long novaventimel number and by that time, the odds of the page being typed will be 1:1.
we dont have names for numbers this big. i think i forget how to convert hexadecimel numbers, but if it takes 1 minute to randomly smash out a page of letters my answer might be 29^400x1=minutes
1.51 x 10^583 minutes
aka
2.8800000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 years before you get one page.
somebody please either amuse or kill me.
ps
wait no this is wrong.
youd have to take the noveventimel number, and then find the largest
novaventimel number that has that many digits. i think i might have done this, but i also think i might not have. you decide.
ie if we wanted to guess a random number, which happens to 543, from 1-999 and we got one try per minute, the odds of hitting it would be 1:999, not 1:543
Like some have said, it’s entirely possible that for all of infiniti all of the monkeys would just keep hitting the same key over and over.
The only answer to the question that is strictly ruled out is “No.” As long as the monkeys are going to keep typing for infinity, it’s possible that one nanosecond after you look away one of the monkeys goes on a really lucky streak and happens to type out everything you would want for an affirmative answer.
So really, I guess the answer would have to be “a definitive maybe.”
Like some have said, it’s entirely possible that for all of infiniti all of the monkeys would just keep hitting the same key over and over.
The only answer to the question that is strictly ruled out is “No.” As long as the monkeys are going to keep typing for infinity, it’s possible that one nanosecond after you look away one of the monkeys goes on a really lucky streak and happens to type out everything you would want for an affirmative answer.
So really, I guess the answer would have to be “a definitive maybe.”
If just one monkey typed for all eternity i.e. infinitely then it would write every possible combination of words and books an infinite number of times. Assuming that each combination is finite.
Assuming ofcourse that there is not necessarily a ryhme or reason to the way the monkeys type, and for all practical purposes it is wholely random.
That’s not necessarily true. There’s an insanely high probability that it would happen, but as long as it is random, it’s always possible that you will just fill infinite pages with the same letter and nothing else for all eternity.
So what if the monkeys do write anything meaningful at all - even a single sentence - in whatever language. Does it really mean anything? Can meaning exist apart from an author which has a soul?
If a million immortal monkeys typed on a million non-biodegradable english typewriters using an infinite amount of paper for all eternity, would they eventually write all the english books of the world?
Considering we are talking about infinity, then the answer would be the same for one million monkeys as for one monkey.
Sincerely,
Floyd