Editing Infinite monkey theorem (section)

==In popular culture==
{{Main|Infinite monkey theorem in popular culture}}
The infinite monkey theorem and its associated imagery is considered a popular and proverbial illustration of the mathematics of probability, widely known to the general public because of its transmission through popular culture rather than through formal education.{{efn|Examples of the theorem being referred to as proverbial include: {{cite journal |title=Why creativity is not like the proverbial typing monkey |first1=Jonathan W. |last1=Schooler |first2=Sonya |last2=Dougal |journal=Psychological Inquiry |volume=10 |issue=4 |year=1999}}; and {{cite book |title=The Case of the Midwife Toad |author-link=Arthur Koestler |first=Arthur |last=Koestler |place=New York |year=1972 |page=30 |quote=Neo-Darwinism does indeed carry the nineteenth-century brand of materialism to its extreme limits{{spaced endash}}to the proverbial monkey at the typewriter, hitting by pure chance on the proper keys to produce a Shakespeare sonnet.}} The latter is sourced from {{cite web |url=https://www.angelfire.com/in/hypnosonic/Parable_of_the_Monkeys.html |title=Parable of the Monkeys}}, a collection of historical references to the theorem in various formats.}} This is helped by the innate humor stemming from the image of literal monkeys rattling away on a set of typewriters, and is a popular visual gag.

A quotation attributed<ref>{{Citation |title=Robert Wilensky 1951–American academic |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780191826719.001.0001/q-oro-ed4-00011578 |work=Oxford Essential Quotations |year=2016 |editor=Susan Ratcliffe |publisher=Oxford University Press |quotation=in Mail on Sunday 16 February 1997 ‘Quotes of the Week’}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Lewis |first=Bob |date=1997-06-02 |title=It's time for some zoning laws in today's version of the Old West: the Web |volume=19 |page=84 |work=InfoWorld |publisher=InfoWorld Media Group, Inc. |issue=22 |department=Enterprise Computing, IS Survival Guide |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-DsEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA84 |issn=0199-6649 |postscript=. May also be in "Bob Lewis's IS Survival Guide", published March 19, 1999, ISBN 978-0672314377}}</ref> to a 1996 speech by Robert Wilensky stated, "We've heard that a million monkeys at a million keyboards could produce the complete works of Shakespeare; now, thanks to the Internet, we know that is not true."

The enduring, widespread popularity of the theorem was noted in the introduction to a 2001 paper, "Monkeys, Typewriters and Networks: The Internet in the Light of the Theory of Accidental Excellence".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://skylla.wz-berlin.de/pdf/2002/ii02-101.pdf |title=Monkeys, Typewriters and Networks |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080513012236/http://skylla.wz-berlin.de/pdf/2002/ii02-101.pdf |archive-date=2008-05-13 |first1=Ute |last1=Hoffmann |first2=Jeanette |last2=Hofmann |publisher=Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung gGmbH (WZB) |year=2001}}</ref> In 2002, an article in ''[[The Washington Post]]'' said, "Plenty of people have had fun with the famous notion that an infinite number of monkeys with an infinite number of typewriters and an infinite amount of time could eventually write the works of Shakespeare".<ref>{{cite news |first=Ken |last=Ringle |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A28521-2002Oct27?language=printer |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20021115230959/http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A28521-2002Oct27?language=printer |url-status=dead |archive-date=15 November 2002 |title=Hello? This is Bob |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |date=28 October 2002 |page=C01}}</ref> In 2003, the previously mentioned [[Arts Council England|Arts Council]]−funded experiment involving real monkeys and a computer keyboard received widespread press coverage.<ref name=vivariaNotesShakespeare>{{cite web |url=http://www.vivaria.net/experiments/notes/documentation/press/ |title=Notes towards the complete works of Shakespeare |year=2002 |website=vivaria.net |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070716153346/http://www.vivaria.net/experiments/notes/documentation/press/ |archive-date=2007-07-16 }} – some press clippings.</ref> In 2007, the theorem was listed by ''[[Wired (magazine)|Wired]]'' magazine in a list of eight classic [[thought experiment]]s.<ref>{{cite magazine |first=Greta |last=Lorge |url=https://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/magazine/15-06/st_best |title=The best thought experiments: Schrödinger's cat, Borel's monkeys |magazine=Wired |volume=15 |issue=6 |date=May 2007}}</ref>

American playwright [[David Ives]]' short [[one-act play]] ''[[Words, Words, Words]]'', from the collection ''[[All in the Timing]]'', pokes fun of the concept of the infinite monkey theorem.

In 2015 Balanced Software released Monkey Typewriter on the Microsoft Store.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2015-11-16 |title=Monkey Typewriter |url=https://apps.microsoft.com/store/detail/monkey-typewriter/9NBLGGH69FC8 |access-date=2022-02-14 |website=Microsoft Store Apps |publisher=Balanced Software |language=en-us |id=9NBLGGH69FC8}}</ref> The software generates random text using the Infinite Monkey theorem string formula. The software queries the generated text for user inputted phrases. However the software should not be considered true to life representation of the theory. This is a more of a practical presentation of the theory rather than scientific model on how to randomly generate text.