An Infinte Amount of Monkeys

I would have to say that give an infinite amount of time with the addition of evolution, I would have to say yes i believe it would be possible but since this theory is unprovable I truly wouldn't know.

Originally post by FatherLukeDuke

Have a look into The Library of Babel

Incredible find, Father Luke! I actually remember this story -- a discovered memory. I read this story many years ago.

Within the Library of Babel is every possible future of every individual, spelled out in perfect detail. Of course, there are millions of false futures as well. Somewhere there is a book that tells which futures are real, and which are false -- an index into reality. If you find that book, you have the secret destiny of all humanity on the planet.

Of course, there are millions of false indexes, and billions more that are correct except for my personal destiny, or yours.

Yeah -- my head hurts thinking about it. But it is a "good" hurt. Thanks for this post!

Edit: Link up to previous reply...

[edit on 26-4-2008 by Buck Division]

Originally posted by Disgustipated
Right , so i have a question thats been bugging me all day

If you had (hypothethcicly) had an infinte amount of monkeys, an infinte amount of typerighters and gave the monkeys an infinte amount of time typing on the typewriters

Infinite Monkeys, Infinite Typewriters, Infinite Time... What can happen will happen...

Would they eventualy write every book in human history

I think so.

If space and time were truly infinite, then presumably every single thing that can possibly happen is going to happen.

I warn you, It'll probably involve multi-dimensional activity though.

I can only speculate as to how many books they would write, but I can say with near certainty that at some point they would would create an internet forum where they would argue endlessly about whether UFO's actually exist or not...

As long as we are on the topic of primates though, here is a related link for you to consider.

Primate Programming

reply to post by Disgustipated


Yes !

Infinite = every path will be walked

First couple of posts in this thread I thought I was going crazy!! lol

Doesn't matter if it's an infinite amount of chimps and typewriters in 1 millisecond, or if it's 1 chimp and typewriter with infinite time, every possible random combination will be done, therefore they will write everything, what has been written and was is yet to be written.

Originally posted by Disgustipated
Right , so i have a question thats been bugging me all day

If you had (hypothethcicly) had an infinte amount of monkeys, an infinte amount of typerighters and gave the monkeys an infinte amount of time typing on the typewriters
Would they eventualy write every book in human history

Ok, given an infinite amount of time would one monkey be able to understand the content of this thread?

The monkeys don't need to evolve or understand squat. Random bashing on a keyboard over an infinite amount of time will produce every conceivable combination of text, which by it's nature, also is infinite so the job is never done.

They would type the bible in it's entirety, and with one error, and with one error infinite times, and with two errors and with two errors infinite times and everything else, and everything with one error, or a million errors, the point is that it will all be produced.

Which one of you is Karl Pilkington?

Montgomery Burns:
"This is a thousand monkeys working at a thousand typewriters. Soon they'll have written the greatest novel known to man. Lets see. It was the best of times, it was the blurst of times! You stupid monkey!"

reply to post by FatherLukeDuke

I've read it. Like all Borges's work, it's both very good and very mind-expanding. Not all the implications are obvious at a first or even a second reading; it's a story to be studied, not just read.

Reply to the OP: yes it would. If the monkeys evolve, we'll get more monkeys.

Some have indeed missed the point of this one. The reason monkeys are chosen is just to indicate it's random typing of letters. Ofcourse they will write every book known to man and the time of completion is exactly the time needed to write the biggest/longest book.

Originally posted by broli
They will write every book known to man and the time of completion is exactly the time needed to write the biggest/longest book.

That is the correct answer, Broli. Well done.

By the way, at the time of completion, the biggest / longest book will have been written not just once, but an infinite number of times. Such is the nature of infinity.

Books tell stories and convey knowledge. Will the randomly typing monkeys inadvertently write down all stories/knowledge of the universe (not just human)?