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Usenet Posted 23 years ago
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Monkey Shakespeare Simulator

Someone posted this to alt.folklore.urban earlier today.

It's amusing. Your own computer simulates millions of monkeys typing randomly, and the output is instantly compared to the plays of Shakespeare. After six hours or so, I got up to 8 characters from Love Labour's Lost, which ties me with the world record. I suspect it's very hard to to get 9.
When I hunted for this post, I found that Simon had mentioned it in August. Has anyone here kept it going?
I got Warwick twice, which was interesting. It apparently can only compare to the beginning of speeches, not just random selections from the middles of lines. So what it recognizes turn out to be character names and titles. Oh, and this:
(Enter ,)3P&R"-prW!-f5Db-qNOf?-5zyK7WJ...

Best Donna Richoux
  

Top answer

com/iipw [/nq] [nq:1]It's amusing. Your own computer simulates millions of monkeys typing randomly, and the output is instantly compared to the plays ... from Love Labour's Lost, which ties me with the world record.

  • com/iipw [/nq] [nq:1]It's amusing.
  • Your own computer simulates millions of monkeys typing randomly, and the output is instantly compared to the plays ...
  • from Love Labour's Lost, which ties me with the world record.
  • [/nq] That seems about right.
  • I'm getting 6 characters about every four or five seconds and there appear to be about 70 characters in the set, so a back of the envelope calculation shows that you should get 7 letters after about 5 minutes, 8 letters after about 6 hours, and 9 letters after about 18 days.
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21 Answers
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[nq:2]http://user.tninet.se/~ecf599g/aardasnails/java/Monkey/webpages/index.html#r or http://tinyurl.com/iipw[/nq]
[nq:1]It's amusing. Your own computer simulates millions of monkeys typing randomly, and the ou
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[nq:1]http://user.tninet.se/~ecf599g/aardasnails/java/Monkey/webpages/index.html#r[/nq]
[nq:2]It's amusing. Your own computer simulates millions of monkeys typing ... record. I suspect it's very hard to to get 9.[/nq]
[nq:1]That seems about right. I'm getting 6 characters ab
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[nq:1]That seems about right. I'm getting 6 characters about every four or five seconds and there appear to be about ... 82 years to get fourteen. (Got my second seven letter match: "Duke E." from Measure for Measure .) [/nq]
In principle, this is the same as doing the National Lottery. We are as blind and as random as the monkeys when we select our six numbers. I have done the National Lotter
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>
>
There are a million of us?
I was beginning to think that there were really only 57 of us. Twenty trusting newcomers.
Thirty simple regulars.
And 7 regulars playing themselves
and the parts of the other 183 posters.
Richard Maurer To reply, remove half
Sunnyvale, California of a homonym of a synonym for also.
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[nq:1]Apparently we can look forward to exponential growth in our number of monkeys, so that will make the higher numbers ... they say, if a monkey is going to type a complete play, that has to mean the opening line, too.[/nq]
So what we need primarily is not more monkeys,
but a better demon of the second kind.
The demon of the second kind was invented by Lem.
It takes random lette
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[nq:1]That seems about right. I'm getting 6 characters about every four or five seconds and there appear to be about ... and 82 years to get fourteen. (Got my second seven letter match: "Duke E." from Measure for Measure .)[/nq]
I don't match any Shakespeare, but I now have two acts of Schiller's "Mary Stuart". Just my luck to get romantic monkeys.
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[nq:1]I don't match any Shakespeare, but I now have two acts of Schiller's "Mary Stuart". Just my luck to get romantic monkeys.[/nq]
Beats my "It was a dark and stalky banana".
Matti
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[nq:2]It's amusing. Your own computer simulates millions of monkeys typing ... record. I suspect it's very hard to to get 9.[/nq]
[nq:1]That seems about right. I'm getting 6 characters about every four or five seconds and there appear to be about ... and 82 years to get fourteen. (Got my second seven letter match: "Duke E." from Measure for Measure .)[/nq]
I would find it extremely annoyin
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[nq:1]Ten letters would take about three and a half years, and you won't live to see eleven letters (239 years).[/nq]
Here's a nice twist on the monkey/typewriter story:

Ray Heindl
(remove the X to reply)
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On 17 Oct 2003 15:56:09 -0700, Evan Kirshenbaum
[nq:2]It's amusing. Your own computer simulates millions of monkeys typing ... record. I suspect it's very hard to to get 9.[/nq]
[nq:1]That seems about right. I'm getting 6 characters about every four or five seconds and there appear to be about ... and 82 years to get fourteen. (Got my second seven letter match: "Duke E." from Measure for M

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