What happens if they write the communist manifesto before any works of Shakespeare?

It's not literal.

It's a way to explain that any result is possible.

Like, throw some matter/energy in any closed system, and eventually, everything and anything possible will happen on an infinite timeline.

So sure, 99.9999999999999999% are going to poop on it, but on an infinite scale, you'd get Shakespeare

A finite number of monkeys would almost certainly just destroy their finite number of typewriters long before they randomly bashed out anything coherent, let alone Shakespeare. Infinite monkeys with infinite typewriters don't have that problem though. As long as it doesnt break the laws of physics it would eventually happen, no matter how unlikely it is. That's the whole point.

This raises an interesting question: Do other primates even have the same anatomy to get carpal tunnel? It's just an inflammation of tissue in a very narrow part of the wrist that puts pressure on a nerve. Do monkies even have the same kind of tissues in the same narrow passage to get inflamed enough that it causes pressure on a nerve that gives mobility issues to their hands?

It's infinite monkeys over infinite time. Yeah, some would get carpel tunnel (an infinite number of them) and some would form labour unions (an infinite number of labour unions). There would be an infinite number of cults, and an infinite number of supreme leaders would rise. You'd have an infinite number of "it's almost Shakespeare but you got one character wrong", many more than complete Shakespeare works. And it would increase as you include more and more errors.

With an infinite amount of monkeys, this would start happening in the minimum amount of time it takes for any of that to happen. You don't even really need infinite time once you have infinite monkeys, but finite monkeys with infinite time are different because then you have a finite number of outcomes and extinction might arrive before they have a chance to achieve each one.

“It was the best of times, it was the blurst of times… you stupid monkey!”

How can you get infinite monkeys to all stop writing?

Reddit is basically prove that this theory is bullshit anyway.

I dnn't know, we might get this gem from the monkeys first "It was the best of times, it was the blurst of times." I would consider that a win even more than the monkey's forming a very militant labor union.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infinite_monkey_theorem

You don't actually need infinite time if you have infinite monkeys with typewriters. If the typing is truly random, one of the moneys will type the complete works of Shakespeare on the first try. Or maybe infinitely many will, but then you start having to reason about different sizes of infinity.

It's a thought exercise and a metaphor, not literal

👋✌️

This cracked me up. Thanks. I needed this.

Me hiring monkey pinkertons for my infinite monkey theorem based publishing house, "wanna bet?"

/s

We are what happens to the monkeys when they're done writing Shakespeare

Y'hear that America? Even monkeys don't have to rely on tips

We're assuming spherical monkeys and unlimited tyranny

It does make you wonder what monkeys given infinite time (and somehow being coerced into using typewriters) would evolve into.

I think they'd be more likely to dismantle and defecate all over the typewriters than they would be to do anything else with them.

You'd also have to pay them proper wages too, or they'd go on strike.

Usually they just end up using whatever motivation you provide to pay for sexual services instead, no?