Infinite Monkey Theorem Misleading?

Two mathematicians find issues with this theorem. However, their conclusions don’t add up.

 

The infinite monkey theorem is the idea that a monkey could write all of Shakespeare’s works, given that they had an infinite time to do so.

 

The probability that this could happen is so low that the time it would take is longer than the universe’s lifespan, according to Stephen Woodcock and Jay Falletta.  So they decide this means the theorem is misleading. As Woodcock puts it, the probability ‘doesn’t match… the constraints of this universe.’

 

But the theorem is about infinite time, which our universe does not have, so the theorem has nothing to do with the constraints of our universe. For the researchers to discredit the theorem over something it has nothing to do with is neither logical nor sensible.

 

A final thing to note is that they measured the probability with chimps, not monkeys like the theorem is named after. Chimps aren’t monkeys, and nor did chimps evolve from monkeys. The calculations they made on chimps could have been made on the monkeys; as such, there was no need to use chimps, making that choice bizarre. So using chimps to disprove a theorems about monkeys is odd.

 

Simply, their conclusions don’t add up.