Sunday, May 11, 2003

The Last Page keeps finding great stuff. The latest is this story. Researchers in England decided to test out the theory that infinite monkeys with infinite typewriters will eventually produce the works of Shakespeare. But they only had six monkeys and one month. The results, unfortunately, failed to prove anything about the literary prowess of primates:
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."

You can read the complete work of the monkeys (helpfully translated into four languages) right here

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