A recent study by two Australian mathematicians has cast doubt on the long-accepted "infinite monkey theorem," which suggests that a monkey typing at random could eventually produce the complete works of William Shakespeare given infinite time. Researchers Stephen Woodcock and Jay Falletta from Sydney have found that the probability of this happening is virtually non-existent.
Their peer-reviewed research indicates that the time required for a monkey to replicate Shakespeare's plays, sonnets, and poems would exceed the lifespan of our universe. As a result, they argue that while mathematically feasible, the theorem is fundamentally "misleading."
The study not only considered a single monkey's typing ability but also expanded its calculations to include the global population of chimpanzees, estimated at around 200,000. The conclusion? Even if all these chimpanzees typed one key per second until the end of time, they would still fail to produce Shakespeare's works.
The researchers noted that the chance of a lone chimp successfully typing the word "bananas" in its lifetime is just 5%. Even constructing a simple sentence, such as "I chimp, therefore I am," holds a minuscule probability of one in 10 million billion billion.
The authors assert, "It is not plausible that, even with improved typing speeds or an increase in chimpanzee populations, monkey labor will ever be a viable tool for developing non-trivial written works."
Their calculations were based on the heat death theory, one of the most accepted hypotheses about the universe's ultimate fate. Despite its name, the heat death is characterized by a gradual and cold demise as the universe continuously expands and cools, leading to decay and the eventual fading of all matter.
In a statement regarding their findings, Associate Prof. Woodcock highlighted the theorem's placement among various probability puzzles, where infinite resources yield results that diverge from practical realities within the universe.
