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Monkeys on a Typewriter: Difference between revisions
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== Real Life ==
* This was actually tried in the Paignton Zoo in Devon in 2002, where six macaques were given free access to a (protected) computer. Their initial reaction was to pee on it or bash it with a rock; but in time they did start to get the hang of typing. After several months the results were several pages of gibberish, but the letter ''S'' as in ''Shakespeare'' was more prominent than others.
* In a different context: It has frequently been claimed that the value π, being irrational and non-terminating, inevitably contains all possible sequences of numbers at some point in its length. If this is true -- and it has ''not'' yet been confirmed -- then with the correct choice of encoding scheme it should be possible to find the full text of ''Hamlet'' somewhere in it. As well as every possible "almost but not quite" version of ''Hamlet'', including [[In the Original Klingon]]. The kicker, of course, is how long it would take to find the right starting point<
** There have been online discussions about using this possibility as a [[Logic Bomb]] with which to destroy [[Copyright]] -- by demonstrating that any and every allegedly "protected" work is actually in the public domain, and has been for billions of years. Again, the thought experiment both assumes the truth of the unproven assertion and ignores how long it would take to find even the shortest works encoded into π.
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