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<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><title>Infinite-Monkey Theorem</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="../../jargon.css" type="text/css"/><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets V1.61.0"/><link rel="home" href="../index.html" title="The Jargon File"/><link rel="up" href="../I.html" title="I"/><link rel="previous" href="infinite-loop.html" title="infinite loop"/><link rel="next" href="infinity.html" title="infinity"/></head><body><div class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="3" align="center">Infinite-Monkey Theorem</th></tr><tr><td width="20%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="infinite-loop.html">Prev</a><EFBFBD></td><th width="60%" align="center">I</th><td width="20%" align="right"><EFBFBD><a accesskey="n" href="infinity.html">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr/></div><dt><a id="Infinite-Monkey-Theorem"/><dt xmlns="" id="Infinite-Monkey-Theorem"><b>Infinite-Monkey Theorem</b>: <span xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="grammar">n.</span></dt></dt><dd><p> “<span class="quote">If you put an <a href="infinite.html"><i class="glossterm">infinite</i></a> number of
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monkeys at typewriters, eventually one will bash out the script for
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Hamlet.</span>” (One may also hypothesize a small number of monkeys and a
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very long period of time.) This theorem asserts nothing about the
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intelligence of the one <a href="../R/random.html"><i class="glossterm">random</i></a> monkey that
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eventually comes up with the script (and note that the mob will also type
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out all the possible <span class="emphasis"><em>incorrect</em></span> versions of Hamlet).
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It may be referred to semi-seriously when justifying a <a href="../B/brute-force.html"><i class="glossterm">brute
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force</i></a> method; the implication is that, with enough resources
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thrown at it, any technical challenge becomes a <a href="../O/one-banana-problem.html"><i class="glossterm">one-banana
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problem</i></a>. This argument gets more respect since
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<a href="../L/Linux.html"><i class="glossterm">Linux</i></a> justified the <a href="../B/bazaar.html"><i class="glossterm">bazaar</i></a>
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mode of development.</p><p>Other hackers maintain that the Infinite-Monkey Theorem cannot be
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true — otherwise Usenet would have reproduced the entire canon of
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great literature by now.</p><p>In mid-2002, researchers at Plymouth Univesity in England actually
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put a working computer in a cage with six crested macaques. The monkeys
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proceeded to bash the machine with a rock, urinate on it, and type the
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letter S a lot (later, the letters A, J, L, and M also crept in). The
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results were published in a limited-edition book, <i class="citetitle">Notes Towards
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The Complete Works of Shakespeare</i>. A researcher reported:
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“<span class="quote">They were quite interested in the screen, and they saw that when
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they typed a letter, something happened. There was a level of intention
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there.</span>” Scattered field reports that there are AOL users this
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competent have been greeted with well-deserved skepticism.</p><p>This theorem has been traced to the mathematiciamn <20>mile
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Borel in 1913, and was first popularized by the astronomer Sir Arthur
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Eddington. It became part of the idiom of techies via the classic SF short
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story <a href="http://www.janda.org/c10/readings/monkeys.htm" target="_top">Inflexible
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Logic</a> by Russell Maloney, and many younger hackers know it through
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a reference in Douglas Adams's <i class="citetitle">Hitchhiker's Guide to the
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Galaxy</i>. Some other references have been <a href="http://www.angelfire.com/in/hypnosonic/Parable_of_the_Monkeys.html" target="_top">collected
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on the Web</a>.
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On 1 April 2000 the usage acquired its own Internet standard, <a href=" http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2795.txt" target="_top"> RFC2795</a> (Infinite Monkey
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Protocol Suite).</p></dd><div class="navfooter"><hr/><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="infinite-loop.html">Prev</a><EFBFBD></td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="../I.html">Up</a></td><td width="40%" align="right"><EFBFBD><a accesskey="n" href="infinity.html">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">infinite loop<6F></td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="../index.html">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"><EFBFBD>infinity</td></tr></table></div></body></html>
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