Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2002/12/03
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Simian Shit?? With this the LUG has now achieved another low brow low!! drb@mit.edu wrote: >Phong- > >The mean time would be several orders of magnitude more than the age of the >universe in seconds. Look at it this way - suppose by some miracle the >monkey succeeds in typing almost all of the complete works of Shakespeare >and is about to hit the last character on the last page. Given that there >are ~100 possible choices on the keyboard, there is a 99% chance that he >will pick the wrong one, thus nullifying the result. That, of course, isn't >to say that monkeys could never produce prose - just look at Congress >(screeching and feces throwing included). > >To bring it back to a more related topic, my research at the MIT Media Lab >is about photography and imagemaking in the future. I am working with many >of the people who have revolutionized these fields in the past (Steve >Benton, Glorianna Davenport, etc.) and a few companies that are agressively >researching the future (Kodak, Sony, Motorola, etc.). If anyone is >interested I would be happy to talk about where photography (both pro and >consumer) may end up 20-30 years out. > >--Dan > > > > >----- Original Message ----- >From: "Phong" <phong@doan-ltd.com> >To: <leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us> >Sent: Monday, December 02, 2002 8:09 PM >Subject: RE: [Leica] Monkey Business?? > > >>Every novel, play, digital image (hence digitized of paintings, etc.) >>can be represented as a (very big) number (extremely long string of 1's >>and 0's). Said monkey is a random number generator; assuming a uniform >>distribution of the numbers, eventually _any_ number will come up, given >>enough time. A very bad novel has just a good a chance to come up >>as a very good one, each being vastly (and I mean hugely) outnumbered >>by junk (unrecognized as a novel). >> >>On a practical level, though I haven't done the calculations*, I wouldn't >>be surprised if, assuming the monkey types a character a second, the mean >>time (50% that it has already happened) to generate the works of Mr. >>Shakespeare is more than all seconds from the beginning of time >>(whenever that was), to the present one. >> >>Put in another way: if such monkey had existed and had succeeded in >>typing Shakespeare's works, we would have one hell of a time to find it >>among all the trash that's generated in the process. >> >>Waste management is the name of the game. >> >>- Phong >> >> >> >> >>>-----Original Message----- >>>From: owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us >>>[mailto:owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us]On Behalf Of Edward >>>Caliguri >>>Sent: Monday, December 02, 2002 5:46 PM >>>To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us >>>Subject: [Leica] Monkey Business?? >>> >>> >>> Steve, BD, folks - >>> Just to chime in -- the Zen thing and al can get one thinking -- Is >>> >good > >>>writing de-valued because of the "Monkey - Shakespeare" theory? You >>> >know, a > >>>monkey in a room with a typewriter (remember those :-) ?) will >>> >eventually > >>>crank out the complete works of said Author if given enough time? Is it >>>easier to create a truly "Great" (whatever that is!) photograph, than a >>>truly "Great" drawing/painting, which would be infinitely easier than >>>writing a truly "Great" novel or play? Someone needs to do a Philosophy >>>dissertation! >>> EC >>> >>-- >>To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html >> > >-- >To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html > - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html