24 replies to this topic

[Alexandra]

A website devoted to the proposition that if you put a bunch of monkeys typing on a keyboard long enough, they'll duplicate the work of Shakespeare.

Click Monkey Shakespeare Simulator to see this in action.

Not quite in the same league with Which Russian composer are you? but still....

[Hans]

Alexandra, I could play with that all day!  So far, I have three letters matching the first part of King Henry the Fourth and three from Hamlet

[Alexandra]

Keep at it, Hans!  The record is six letters -- you probably saw that.  And there's a thing you can click to report that you've broken the record.

Now, what would be the ballet equivalent.....keep those monkeys dancing long enough, and you'll get the entire Petipa canon?

[Hans]

I also took the "Which dead Russian composer are you?" test--I'm Rimsky-Korsakov.  It gave me several great ideas for ballet quizzes, like "which dead ballet choreographer are you?" and "which 19th-century ballet character are you?"

[Alexandra]

Hans, my great talent is that I can delegate   Dream up those quizzes and put them up!

[Tancos]

Here's little perspective on monkeys, typewriters and Shakespeare:

Scott Adams, 1989
Dilbert writes a poem and presents it to Dogbert:
DOGBERT: I once read that given infinite time, a thousand monkeys with typewriters would eventually write the complete works of Shakespeare.
DILBERT: But what about my poem?
DOGBERT: Three monkeys, ten minutes.
--Scott Adams, Dilbert comic strip, 15 May 1989.

Houghton, 1993?
Come to think of it, there are already a million monkeys on a million typewriters, and Usenet is NOTHING like Shakespeare.

There are also a couple of classic short stories on the topic, Russell Maloney's "Inflexible Logic" and R.A. Lafferty's "Been a Long Time." Both are worth tracking down.

[Alexandra]

Those are great, Tancos!

It is a worrying concept.  Are the monkeys given adequate breaks?  (We must assume they're well-fed and well-housed.)  But why typewriters?  Why not give them computers?   It would speed things along, one would think.

[Mel Johnson]

Problem with that is, it's been tried.  A bunch of baboons were given some computers to play with, and after several replacements of keyboards (they urinated on them, or smashed them on the ground; see, they really DO know!), it was discovered that the baboons were inordinately fascinated with the letter "S" and those keys surrounding it.  So a sample of monkey writing on the computer runs like: ssSSssq swss sxs ssssEssssds.  No kiddin'! :shrug:

[GWTW]

Maybe the baboons held the keyboard in their left hand and 's', being close to the left side of the board, was continually pressed... Well, that only works if baboon hands are the same size as mine  

[Nanatchka]

Why would keyboards or typewriters be sufficient to turn primates into writers? What about editors, deadlines, chocolate, lots of mail that has to be opened, back issues of magazines that might have relevant material, coffee pots with lots of parts, a very old bathrobe to wear, and a conviction that someone else has already written a better piece on the same subject--in fact, the conviction that you yourself have written  a better piece, and will never again be as good as you were. That might produce, if not Shakespeare, some dance criticism....

[Mary J]

Where can one find the Which dead Russian composer are you? test? My monkeys got up to three letters of five different plays by the time I signed off yesterday.

[Alexandra]

Mary, that thread still SHOULD be here, on Anything Goes. (Meaning, it wasn't deliberately deleted, but there were times when we mysteriously lost posts on the old server.)

[Hans]

I googled it and found:  http://www.angelfire...d/russcomp.html

[atm711]

Good Grief----I'm Shostakovitch---one of my least favorite composers.  Perhaps I should listen to him more carefully.........

[Alexandra]

Hans, we were posting at the same time.  I've moved your Which Dead Choreographer Are You? poll to this thread:

http://balletalert.i...t=0#entry102167

on Anything Goes.