| Monkeys
fail to produce masterpiece |
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| Six
Sulawesi crested macaques took part in the experiment at Paignton
Zoo |
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A
bizarre experiment by a group of students has found monkeys cannot
write Shakespeare.
They
were testing the notion that monkeys typing at random will eventually
produce literature.
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Lecturers
and students from the University of Plymouth wanted to test the theory
that an infinite number of monkeys given typewriters would create
the works of Shakespeare.
A single computer was placed in a monkey enclosure at Paignton Zoo
to monitor the literary output of six primates.
But after a month, the Sulawesi crested macaques had only succeeded
in partially destroying the machine, using it as a lavatory, and mostly
typing the letter "s".
The project, by students from the university's MediaLab Arts course,
received £2,000 from the Arts Council.
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| "At
first the lead male got a stone and started bashing the hell
out of it." Mike Phillips, Institute
of Digital Arts and Technology |
Eventually
the six monkeys - Elmo, Gum, Heather, Holly, Mistletoe and Rowan -
produced five pages of text which consisted mainly of the letter "s".
But towards the end of the experiment, their output slightly improved,
with the letters A, J, L and M also appearing.
However, they failed to come up with anything that remotely resembled
a word.
"Obviously English isn't their first language, they pressed a
lot of S's," said Mike Phillips, Director of the university's
Institute of Digital Arts and Technology (i-DAT).
Mr Phillips, denied the project was a waste of money and said they
had learned "an awful lot".
He said the £2,000 was spent on purchasing the hardware to set up
a radio link so the activities in the enclosure could be watched live
on a website.
"Compared to the cost of reality TV, this was a tiny pinch of money,"
he said.
"It provided very stimulating and fascinating viewing."
"They were quite interested in the screen, and they saw that
when they typed a letter something happened."
Paignton Zoo scientific officer Dr Amy Plowman said: "The work was
interesting but had little scientific value, except to show that the
'infinite monkey' theory is flawed."
The results of the experiment formed part of a larger project developed
by i-DAT.
They have been published in a limited edition book entitled Notes
Towards The Complete Works of Shakespeare.
Article first published: 10th May 2003
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