this post was submitted on 23 Jan 2024
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Showerthoughts

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Monkeys given infinite time would probably get carpal tunnel or form a labor union before typing out Shakespeare. (lemmy.world)
submitted 9 months ago by solid_matt@lemmy.world to c/showerthoughts@lemmy.world
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[–] jeffw@lemmy.world 14 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (4 children)

Always thought this was BS and Wikipedia confirms my assumption:

In 2002, lecturers and students from the University of Plymouth MediaLab Arts course used a £2,000 grant from the Arts Council to study the literary output of real monkeys. They left a computer keyboard in the enclosure of six Celebes crested macaques in Paignton Zoo in Devon, England from May 1 to June 22, with a radio link to broadcast the results on a website. Not only did the monkeys produce nothing but five total pages largely consisting of the letter "S", the lead male began striking the keyboard with a stone, and other monkeys followed by urinating and defecating on the machine.

[–] gregorum@lemm.ee 21 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

They gave monkeys a computer. Instead of Shakespeare, the result was Twitter.

A rose by any other name…

[–] TxzK@lemmy.zip 6 points 9 months ago

Those monkeys wrote a better love story than Twilight

[–] Zoboomafoo@slrpnk.net 3 points 9 months ago

Too few monkeys

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_ape_language

Definitely appears that there's some kind of soft-cap on what Great Apes outside the human genus are capable of mastering. 10,000 monkeys given an infinite amount of time will be unable to produce a work of Shakespeare primarily because they cannot grasp the ideas of grammar and or symbolic speech.

Even setting aside whether some number of macaques can learn to master the use of a typewriter, there's a real reason to believe they aren't equipped to derive complex and multi-layered vocabulary. Shakespeare is replete with puns and monkeys just don't grasp that kind of language.

[–] gregorum@lemm.ee 3 points 9 months ago

Research into great ape language has involved teaching chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas and orangutans to communicate with humans and each other using sign language, physical tokens, lexigrams, and imitative human speech. Some primatologists argue that the use of these communication methods indicate primate "language" ability, though this depends on one's definition of language.

Lol on that last sentence (emphasis mine)