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Typing monkey would be unable to produce 'Hamlet' within the lifetime of the universe, study finds (phys.org)

submitted 2 weeks ago by VantaBrandon@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

198 comments fedilink hide all child comments

The question that everyone has been dying to know has been answered. Finally! What will scientists study next?

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[–] bstix@feddit.dk 3 points 2 weeks ago

Well it isn't 6.

From Wikipedia:

In 2002, lecturers and students from the University of Plymouth MediaLab Arts course used a £2,000 grant from the Arts Council to study the literary output of real monkeys. They left a computer keyboard in the enclosure of six Celebes crested macaques in Paignton Zoo in Devon, England from May 1 to June 22, with a radio link to broadcast the results on a website. Not only did the monkeys produce nothing but five total pages largely consisting of the letter "S",the lead male began striking the keyboard with a stone, and other monkeys followed by urinating and defecating on the machine

Mike Phillips, director of the university's Institute of Digital Arts and Technology (i-DAT), said that the artist-funded project was primarily performance art, and they had learned "an awful lot" from it. He concluded that monkeys "are not random generators. They're more complex than that