If you have an infinite amount of monkeys and they're all typing truly randomly, then an infinite number of them would get it correct on the first try. Which is sort of weird to think about lol.
this post was submitted on 14 Apr 2025
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Most people don't get the thought experiment at all.
I've seen 300+ deep comment chains on reddit with people arguing bitterly back and forth if a monkey could even operate a typewriter, and how it's absolutely impossible to get monkeys to type out a book, etc, etc, etc.
I hate it here.
I think too many people don't consider the monkey is not supposed to be making decisions, it's just supposed to be inputting anything, literally anything, on a typewriter.
Like a random value generator, for typewriter keys.
You could get the same result throwing an infinite number of typewriters down an infinitely long mineshaft, but there will be even fewer people who would understand it 😭
Worse, creationists use the "watch maker's paradox" as evidence of creation. Same idea but watch parts in a washing machine.
I have argued with plenty of theists, they tend to cherry-pick parts of every idea to validate their extreme fear of death/God, so they hyper-fixate on the idea that "fantastic things" can happen with infinities, without addressing the problems that also come from infinities.
The idea behind the monkeys/typewriters thought experiment is to highlight just how problematic actual infinities would be in our universe, it's an argument against things like gods occuring, because in an infinite, unbounded universe there would be an infinite number of infinitely powerful beings negating each other all out over large enough scales.
What about a rock formation that happened to be a sun dial?
The thought experiment is about how wrist watches are incredibly complex and hand crafted machines so if you dissemble one and put all the parts in a clothes dryer you won't get a watch back. (I believe given infinite time and random movements you would eventually get a watch.)
I mean, if they are actually monkeys who don't know to type, some of them will still press keys once or twice. And if there's infinite monkeys, they will still type it out.
If you're talking magical, biologically accurate monkeys, then they will eventually shit out models of every scene of your life, replicated in perfect detail in monkey feces. Not just once, but an infinite number of times, and also in every possible configuration your life may have ever existed in, every choice you could have made. An infinite number of times.
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Hell, if you have infinite time and infinite typewriters, you don't even need the monkeys. You could probably depend on hail pressing those keys, the argument still stands. As long as there are inputs, ever.
Given long enough periods of time, if your typewriters were magically immune to entropy, they would eventually start quantum teleporting into each other, and eventually would accidentally create perfect clockwork mecha-godzilla made entirely out of typewriters.
The funny thing is, if you truly have infinite monkeys, it doesn't matter if they're using it correctly or not. There is an infinite amount of them.
Some infinities are bigger than others, though.
Even if you have countably infinite monkeys typing countably infinite strings for an infinite period of time, there will be an infinite number of strings that the monkeys haven't typed, that will never be in the set of completed typed strings.
Cantor's diagonalization proves it.
This is why I go online.
We do a little trolling... 😁
https://libraryofbabel.info/bookmark.cgi?a_glooming_peace_this_morning_with_it_brings.:1
Source: Library of Babel; Volume 16 on Shelf 5 of Wall 1 of Hexagon
[The Hexagon Code] (It's a very long string of text)
36h6cdq6fgr2txo6oiem10sk12fsznpchpc8xjhp6o33wrop0msc39r0sdqi4xu8xzidcdbodf4qdawphne79fxcovchwdy7hs33x67ut2abya3ek1l53cymuytnlwcw0s302p56l0sve4i7eenvp3zciy7y6qrukbkdjr1qbf9srxhemci9r17vtz9c7v3azs5luflg9c5o1rz06cev90bdj23i8xdci2zezdz3zx8jnfdi8z8yoj3s4otn8df4j6xs61b9hivif2l34o8917ml99yzmg3nzvn0ein5ytttgk4n82o8owybas6xqtd4da8mtu73uaq8tjsoidmc6e4jtfsmpj2x2tsdusifit9i1e3z4dvupz6vwe9bx9224qo5wqpa9m55z1c8ar61j575frr90zh8qm893padxhkpbawoeziusx069m0cl15vh4gptda2bncz9sqmd5axvsshbgz220o6xxxoga5wuf21iyyqc9k5midvax4merxapez2cfp4rrqi68oyzdb64jlvfzt108k5eoph8hwyyumsng5lxz6mkr3wnaajdi3oo8mjkhs4bhxt33leico8ixxeyjbvcjez827dv2meisp2y8goymcmuw983moy9b2spui8hchvsuqfkq7lzqp5ia47llbak2eszxui3d6gvbz0dp3995la1jwprrq3gxuax41zj4ce4niavrqn1udcxhjxl09sf6nwm4vmu68x4577hxlx9zd3w8904tnx5v42dnf0dbocprv6a3lbnm040vg2jj6us24ngqie5yitr3p5ec3mmvd9vzwqcou04jg7b7bwxi1zesl0lg0jbuli43r1v8dyareo8c6r0v4h2mded2gqz1425zieeu7y5h7piet6hzcfukmke2e2jzs19crqvmslowpntl4buco3hnqjcxg1a2ara8isrty48t4hjwa9wiwbcqjbhne74i5ci9h94ookqj2g8mb02sx72e7euafgd3qqcithzg023mzj7prcnqqy8j3wp6ah49lcma3bk6s9ejs4io81j90kcewbnstruf3k4w4xt4zj6i6r4aaz7oq06kaipxn2rqy3bndrvznzl57nod2hg1yzurn7ecdt1rebm8skcwq81gn15nwrlgcv92s2etqeu5gppsypx2nk005bfnw20cp9e2kauq8ifq5t7iwpxq6010lkmre2joav26i9sb5royf1ww7ywlelcmf9qk1ik8kfd2xlhjn9upwb7zpict355k67tydct084kpy8ug7y4kme0b8m8olxfivm7idlw63n0shh3ramiuu4f9w30zagy6xlfx0u2ydgys4mp77x8w05r2qxg5b81gdfh54ozlzvr3bilytbigp5ue16vmmje2ve69nr0pjynnb9ol2o06c54knpfr8qj335l8bgv3lrnxja2y9h2w8ddeu5pm3z7pvxf973o42daea3qia6nthh96i0gyq066gi8h1fanla0bdpx3l8gieo0jxbtsjrgjurubkvz46minrlzk6rom6u07p9fj62qve509lx7xe8ga7be5fdllfkt9a7nxzuvy9qpaxts6p17dntiknbcgei8dytavlytymj0vg9qwfeeq8pnzosslh2kl35yj8xrylgwprktxftyk6yh59mitd24iqd49330cpsjg9jnw44quhhl1rwek917c2aq3u472pw987sx99u8cklym09c29xkit0h4nh6nqauaqt87s32vd19hgj0dc4ybg2764f2xu4n9hmql3xghh1cxophp7vbrfi0qgtxt3vk5ick2f17crqbbi806eyjnzezwtrzbohmgd37mxp4k22f83xyvf9ydhsttu3lp5lpc1vjoejood4vdgn1vj660ih43y24v6xj5msdox5uild6lyyl4becu0optds7uqcvcg3402zrjp5qsv7pi8izwpbg1su92w051fpp7bpexwsrgsaw6oovczr7a7pyuc9ng2u83127nfdrmu7j0erpm3bzng7x8y5lsfcftmgybvj8rqj0gjd1iek2rfx9xp995u8xofu6h1bhm8ikebvbn93mdmjk7n1ho8oqlfyj6pjrvff6ta5baodrrr4azj51e46mkvucrr4gi658f2ry8trs4zvj3z27s3lplwohpfib3e6b8k8qfc8ra4atyxepvogtm15uuj0g5soyxoigudcd4gx4h7iwjj079wu9vcyd5eqlk26imql92rqbkol16ig89yj1k5lr31hvp6x4un3m4mdalwvb5dgn5p79mlnh5nsmlx3amy8nlkgq312jkplcg77r7xb3jqe6qf2ttt8bcj3y78jb68wu21lot03fdmqkq8q0lepmu53c73bovameyz0knru9f2kpc0dcnjergygqpk0g3jiwfy4e13piziszdewahvygztu0eghpcsse9jye7qjxgidtq3buwnrtviva1mb18xy5i47lim1z0bxkcbpvb5v27mq62mii7tvi2bezgmcl6a7am47b54vbmwgybkpq9qooc05g40gomnz2zy9sxe0ssujfbnzp9lz68938aobigoxr8dtm8ovovr2h4zbd14esqams46y37sw4rv7hshocmfk2rnsa0dexztij8a8gob8n9ahfvx5xwuhuurd21j9pelr52lgip3ycra8g2qc23xsan1voodiohqeauri7fyg0luwemn5nei1iwgxmfemr8vuwvb1e9e3izzg0qso54wz3rpup1xtardfthgi0ajn2d4sasz7uzre8j00562v1lrek3l4i428uwtk1m48u0ge7r5456qf5l029fdct5xzxkqdey2htbsb5l2udunl9iwyg2i72kpvb4emijt01xxrh89ztpj7c5191r9u1dzn86yw2n1vv4qhb7c5yls9yy8278hj5xiot8wh614cqufwxxxrmw6wvn0xe8svk7ss3ddp7b9d40rgvjfxtu758onyum00ma5v9lb4pgup84p7aluz7tcapuj7vkcngdy2r0gwa9dheecdbgjwrpmajlnpkpw9wufiowe9c1i9my0xpxmx6x8azpe9rz4ngkpdc9rsnewcac33iybd7ghe191zdrnaa972tra4s4rifoa044vjknye4lxjvskxmrjvyzh7aqrw8spusmn8rw0668qrbbys155t6s43xctl4qa9b37uve9tfe09bkwz5hdhb92932
I have an infinite number of rooms, so I'm putting two monkeys in each room with two typewriters.
Now I can do it in half the time.
Yeah, but since an infinite number of monkeys are working on it already, it will be just one copy for each of the infinite number of monkeys.
Two new monkeys show up, and even though the infinite rooms and infinite typewriters are already occupied, you can make room for them by making all of the monkeys move over one room, and putting the new monkeys in that newly vacant room with the newly available typewriters.
Omg I just read about that the other day but I'm too stupid and forgetful... Something about the existence of inf + 1
The monkeys now have sex with each other non stop. You're now going at 10% of the speed you were previously.
892 trillion years sounds like a minuscule amount of time to wait for a string that long.
Like you already got unbelievably lucky.
But arent there infinite monkeys? You should have already seen it written an infinite amount of times in 892 trillion years
As written this guy only has one monkey.
Perhaps it's in the monkey's psychology that they'd never hit the keys that much before just destroying it all. They're a pretty poor pick for a random value generator.
Not necessarily. There are an infinite number of positive numbers, but -13 will never be one of them. Ergo, even with infinite possibilities, you still may not see a particular combination (even if it does fit the criteria; my metaphor is imperfect).
I grew up with the guy in the pic btw. He was always kinda intense.
Did he have a loicense for his screaming?
That which we call a gyatt by any other name would skibidi rizz just AF. No cap.
We are the monkeys.
We wrote it all.
Even Skibidi toilet.
Is that an actual sentence?
https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/2fd66245-5a4e-48ff-a1e0-1519ac95737d
A short stay in hell
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We all evolved from monkeys, there have been millions of us, and one of us already wrote the works of Shakespear
We are evolved from a common ancestor to all great apes.
A great ape is not a monkey.
Don’t belittle your heritage or I’ll be forced to resolve this like our ancestors, by slinging feces at you until you leave.
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