"If you put an {infinite} number of monkeys at typewriters,
eventually one will bash out the script for Hamlet." (One may also
hypothesize a small number of monkeys and a very long period of
time.) This theorem asserts nothing about the intelligence of the one
{random} monkey that eventually comes up with the script (and note
that the mob will also type out all the possible incorrect versions
of Hamlet). It may be referred to semi-seriously when justifying a
{brute force} method; the implication is that, with enough resources
thrown at it, any technical challenge becomes a {one-banana problem}.
This argument gets more respect since {Linux} justified the {bazaar}
mode of development.
Other hackers maintain that the Infinite-Monkey Theorem cannot be
true -- otherwise Usenet would have reproduced the entire canon of
great literature by now.
In mid-2002, researchers at Plymouth Univesity in England actually
put a working computer in a cage with six crested macaques. The
monkeys proceeded to bash the machine with a rock, urinate on it, and
type the letter S a lot (later, the letters A, J, L, and M also crept
in). The results were published in a limited-edition book, Notes
Towards The Complete Works of Shakespeare. A researcher reported:
"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." Scattered field reports that there are AOL users
this competent have been greeted with well-deserved skepticism.
This theorem has been traced to the mathematiciamn Émile Borel in
1913, and was first popularized by the astronomer Sir Arthur
Eddington. It became part of the idiom of techies via the classic SF
short story Inflexible Logic by Russell Maloney, and many younger
hackers know it through a reference in Douglas Adams's Hitchhiker's
Guide to the Galaxy. Some other references have been collected on the
Web. On 1 April 2000 the usage acquired its own Internet standard,
RFC2795 (Infinite Monkey Protocol Suite).
[glossary]
[Reference(s) to this entry by made by: {one-banana problem}{rat dance}{RFC}]