Ursa_Eagle Posted May 10, 2003 Share Posted May 10, 2003 taken from: http://www.kgw.com/lifestyle/stories/kgw_050903_life_typing_monkeys.5034be.html Typing monkeys fail to produce Shakespeare 05/09/2003 By JILL LAWLESS, Associated Press Writer LONDON -- Give an infinite number of monkeys an infinite number of typewriters, the theory goes, and they will eventually produce the works of Shakespeare. Give six monkeys one computer for a month, and they will make a mess. Researchers at Plymouth University in England reported this week that primates left alone with a computer attacked the machine and failed to produce a single word. "They pressed a lot of S's," researcher Mike Phillips said Friday. "Obviously, English isn't their first language." In a project intended more as performance art than scientific experiment, faculty and students in the university's media program left a computer in the monkey enclosure at Paignton Zoo in southwest England, home to six Sulawesi crested macaques. Then, they waited. At first, said Phillips, "the lead male got a stone and started bashing the hell out of it. "Another thing they were interested in was in defecating and urinating all over the keyboard," added Phillips, who runs the university's Institute of Digital Arts and Technologies. Eventually, monkeys Elmo, Gum, Heather, Holly, Mistletoe and Rowan produced five pages of text, composed primarily of the letter S. Later, the letters A, J, L and M crept in. The notion that monkeys typing at random will eventually produce literature is often attributed to Thomas Huxley, a 19th-century scientist who supported Charles Darwin's theories of evolution. Mathematicians have also used it to illustrate concepts of chance. The Plymouth experiment was funded by England's Arts Council and part of the Vivaria Project, which plans to install computers in zoos across Europe to study differences between animal and artificial life. Phillips said the results showed that monkeys "are not random generators. They're more complex than that. "They were quite interested in the screen, and they saw that when they typed a letter, something happened. There was a level of intention there." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fence_Sitter Posted May 10, 2003 Share Posted May 10, 2003 "They were quite interested in the screen, and they saw that when they typed a letter, something happened. There was a level of intention there." i'm sure there was a level of intention when they pissed on the screen too... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charlie Posted May 10, 2003 Share Posted May 10, 2003 At first, said Phillips, "the lead male got a stone and started bashing the hell out of it. "Another thing they were interested in was in defecating and urinating all over the keyboard," added Phillips, who runs the university's Institute of Digital Arts and Technologies Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fence_Sitter Posted May 10, 2003 Share Posted May 10, 2003 i think this thread will be another muir on sat. or ranier investigation.... holy shit... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
allthumbs Posted May 10, 2003 Share Posted May 10, 2003 Charlie said: "Another thing they were interested in was in defecating and urinating all over the keyboard," I didn't have time to read this thread, but I'm assuming you're talking about Bill and Hillary when they left the White House? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fence_Sitter Posted May 10, 2003 Share Posted May 10, 2003 oh shit...kudos! you guys are damn funny... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jordop Posted May 10, 2003 Share Posted May 10, 2003 (edited) . Edited June 15, 2021 by jordop Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
North_by_Northwest Posted May 10, 2003 Share Posted May 10, 2003 At last, the real ending to 2001: A Space Odyssey The monolith and Hal would both be so pissed off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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