Please, just answer the question please, if you have nothing to contribute, don’t. The question is about the probability, not the monkeys.
Yes…a book is just a series fo characters and spaces. A monkey typing one key at a time would eventually type that exact series of characters. Now, if it was a cat, who can only hit groups of keys then it would not necessary be possible. It would not be able to type words that required sequential letters on opposite sides of the keyboard (for example: “lake” “old”, etc.)
A of W,
Your question is flawed in that probability functions only in a finite scheme. Probability assumes finite time and/or space. Infinity suffers no such limitations and therefore, infinity allow’s any and all possibilities. So, monkeys or a random number generator in our fastest computers will write the library of congress given infinity.
JT
No my question is not flawed, that is just your answer.
[contented edited by ILP]
Notice I say all the English books of the world, and you can write footnotes on a typewriter.
It seems we’re solidly divided into “definitely maybe” and “yes” camps. I have yet to see the “yes” camp refute the definitely maybes, and was wondering if maybe one of you who says that they would could tell me why?
it is actually a ‘definetely maybe’ but if we are talking about what is probable throughout infinite time, then its defientely a ‘yes’.
as you go further and further into infinity, the odds of the monkey typing what you want get better and better. the further you go, the less likely it is that he fails, forever.
pick an arbitrary point longer than any number a human has ever written down, like googolplex^googolplex years. the odds of that monkey not writing the english we want are extremely slim. and it just keeps getting less and less likely, so much that every single thing in the universe that is determined by a probability like this will turn out to not defy the probability.
the problem is nobody can describe infinity, we can only get close.
Infinity is describable, just not comprahendable. There is an immense difference between Accepting something, and understanding it. I agree with futureman on everything else though, within infinite, probability is always: infinite:0 , for infinite continues forevor. You would think the ‘A’ argument is sufficient, but then you must comprehend infinite. There is a forevor amount of time something can happen, so not only WILL it happen, but it will happen an INFINITE amount of times.
True, but that is why I said assuming it is for all practical purposes random.