oday@hplabsc.UUCP (Vicki O'Day) (02/13/86)
I've been trying to remember for several years who wrote the story about the monkey-typewriter experiment. I read it in an anthology, but I don't remember which. I occasionally do a library search of short-story collections, but I never find it, so now I'm ready to ask for help. Who wrote the darned thing? Here's the story: a "scientist" at Oxford (or Cambridge) designs an experiment in which he places lots of monkeys in a room with lots of typewriters. He expects that among all the gibberish they produce, snippets of English prose will appear. After all, if they lived long enough, they should (according to his hypothesis) generate all the combinations of letters and punctuation that there are. He is laughed at by his colleagues. However, the monkeys set to work, and instead of typing mostly random nonsense, they churn out masterpieces of English literature, one after the other. One works on Shakespeare, another on Dickens and so on . The scientist is very upset because the experiment is not turning out as he expects, and finally ends it - I won't say how, because I don't want to spoil the story for someone who hasn't read it. It has to have been written before the thirties or so, because I saw a reference to it in an Edmund Crispin mystery written about then. Any help in finding it will be appreciated. Vicki O'Day hplabs!oday
wjh@bonnie.UUCP (Bill Hery) (02/15/86)
> > I've been trying to remember for several years who wrote the story > about the monkey-typewriter experiment. I read it in an anthology, > but I don't remember which. I occasionally do a library search of > short-story collections, but I never find it, so now I'm ready to > ask for help. Who wrote the darned thing? > I don't remeber the author off hand, but I can point you to an anthology which contains it. Clifton Fadiman editted two anthologies of short stories, poems and cartoons related to mathematical themes; one was "the Mathematical Magpie," but I don't recall the name of the other. The story you refer to was in one of these two books.
mmar@sphinx.UChicago.UUCP (Mitchell Marks) (02/16/86)
In article <717@bonnie.UUCP> wjh@bonnie.UUCP (Bill Hery) writes: >> [Original request from hplabsc was:] >> I've been trying to remember for several years who wrote the story >> about the monkey-typewriter experiment. I read it in an anthology, >> but I don't remember which. I occasionally do a library search of >> short-story collections, but I never find it, so now I'm ready to >> ask for help. Who wrote the darned thing? >> >I don't remeber the author off hand, but I can point you to an anthology >which contains it. Clifton Fadiman editted two anthologies of >short stories, poems and cartoons related to mathematical themes; >one was "the Mathematical Magpie," but I don't recall the name of the >other. The story you refer to was in one of these two books. I can't find it in The Mathematical Magpie, so if Bill Hery was right, try Fadiman's other collection, Fantasia Mathematica. -- -- Mitch Marks @ UChicago ...ihnp4!gargoyle!sphinx!mmar
skiena@uiucdcsb.CS.UIUC.EDU (02/16/86)
The story about the monkeys and the typewriter is in "Fantasia Mathematica"
which is edited by Clifton Fadiman. The story is called "Inflexible Logic"
and was written by Russell Maloney.
- Steven Skiena, University of Illinois - Urbana
{ihnp4,pur-ee,convex}!uiucdcs!skiena skiena%uiuc@csnet-relay.arpawombat@ccvaxa.UUCP (02/19/86)
Stories about monkeys and typewriters are a mini-genre I am interested in.
In addition to the story already mentioned ("Inflexible Logic" by Russell
Maloney) there's "Been a Long Time, Now" by R.A. Lafferty (in either
*Ringing Changes* or *Nine Hundred Grandmothers*).
I also have a yellowed newspaper article (June 1978) about a Yale physicist
who simulated the experiment on a computer. He cheated by giving the
"monkey" a huge keyboard with large numbers of space bars, letter e's,
letter o's, etc. "Typing 10 characters per second, it took the computerized
monkey three days to get 'to be.'" After beefing up the "monkey" and letting
the program run one night the best he got was 'To dea now nat to be will and
them be does doesorns calawroutrould.'
"When you are about to die, a wombat is better than no company at all."
Roger Zelazny, *Doorways in the Sand*
Wombat
ihnp4!uiucdcs!ccvaxa!wombatlee@ukma.UUCP (Carl Lee) (02/19/86)
The story you seek is Inflexible Logic, by Russell Maloney, which I have read in the collection Fantasia Mathematica, by Clifton Fadiman, Simon and Schuster, New York, 1958, pp. 91-98. It is reprinted with the permission of New Yorker Magazine, copyright 1940. Sorry for posting this answer. I tried to send mail but failed. Carl W. Lee, Mathematics Department, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY.
ramin@rtgvax.UUCP (Pantagruel) (02/22/86)
In article <101@hplabsc.UUCP>, oday@hplabsc.UUCP (Vicki O'Day) writes: > > I've been trying to remember for several years who wrote the story > about the monkey-typewriter experiment. I read it in an anthology, > but I don't remember which. I occasionally do a library search of > short-story collections, but I never find it, so now I'm ready to > ask for help. Who wrote the darned thing? > That theme if I recall was milked dry by John Barth in "Giles Goat-Boy". I don't think it's the one you're looking for but it would be interesting to see how many people have used it in their stories--directly that is, I'm sure with perseverence someone will find some Biblical reference to it... (:-) (i.e. Book-list time...) = = = alias: ramin firoozye | USps: Systems Control Inc. uucp: ...!shasta \ | 1801 Page Mill Road ...!lll-lcc \ | Palo Alto, CA 94303 ...!ihnp4 \...!ramin@rtgvax | ^G: (415) 494-1165 x-1777 = = = Standard disclaimer excluded for humanitarian purposes.