The question that everyone has been dying to know has been answered. Finally! What will scientists study next?

0 points

Maybe it’s becaue scientists have very poor imagination of the universe.

permalink
report
reply
0 points

Wait …is this why AI exists? So we can type Hamlet in the face of monkey failures?

Dude. Just use a printer.

permalink
report
reply
4 points

Omg I just realized AI is the new monkeys… that is disturbing

permalink
report
parent
reply
231 points

The theorem holds true. The theorem states that the monkey has infinite time, not just the lifetime of our universe.

That’s just lazy science to change the conditions to make sensational headlines. Bad scientists!

permalink
report
reply
-25 points
*

Infinite time is undefined though. We are not sure there was time before the Big Bang. Before anyone says “but there must have been,” consider that it’s just as paradoxical and mind blowing to imagine that time never had a beginning and just stretches infinitely into the past. How can that be so? It means it would have taken an infinite amount of time for us to reach this moment in time, and that means we never would have.

permalink
report
parent
reply
13 points

Why must the concept of time before the big bang (or after our heat death) exist in our physical reality for us to speculate about theoretical infinities past those? The thought experiment is about infinite time, not all the time in our limited universe. A lot of things happen at infinity that break down as soon as you add a limit, but we’re not talking limits when we’re talking infinity.

permalink
report
parent
reply
50 points

Infinite time is perfectly defined, it just doesn’t exist in our universe

permalink
report
parent
reply
1 point
Deleted by creator
permalink
report
parent
reply
4 points

I think the implications behind there being infinite time in the past are fun if you assume that the universe works like a stochastic state machine. It means that either every finite event that has happened and will happen has already happened an infinite number of times or the universe is infinitely large.

permalink
report
parent
reply
38 points

It also makes a pretty bold claim about us actually knowing the lifespan of the universe.

permalink
report
parent
reply
8 points

How are they defining the end of the universe?

permalink
report
parent
reply
0 points

We know such an infinitesimally small amount about what is actually happening in the universe that any claims to be capable of predicting it’s end are patently absurd.

permalink
report
parent
reply
10 points

Heat death would be my assumption, so between about 10^100 and 10^106 years

permalink
report
parent
reply
16 points

The universe is believed to end just a few nanoseconds before a monkey finishes writing Hamlet.

permalink
report
parent
reply
28 points

Probably very shortly after dinner has been served at that restaurant.

permalink
report
parent
reply
3 points

That’s not bold, we’ve known how long the universe will last for decades now.

permalink
report
parent
reply
-4 points

Just because someone tells you something, doesn’t mean they actually know what they’re talking about. fyi

permalink
report
parent
reply
11 points

the monkey has infinite time

Use an infinite number of monkeys instead?

permalink
report
parent
reply
107 points

This just in: scientists disprove validity of thought experiment; philosophers remain concerned that they’ve missed the point.

permalink
report
parent
reply
2 points
*

The universe is the cage and we are the monkeys. We have already written Hamlet.

permalink
report
parent
reply
27 points

it is also somewhat misleading

…what? No it isn’t. Restricting the premise from infinite to any finite amount of time completely negates it. That doesn’t prove it’s “misleading”, it proves anyone that thinks it does has no idea what they’re talking about.

permalink
report
reply
2 points

Seems to not understand the thought experiment which is a way to contemplate infinity.

permalink
report
reply

Technology

!technology@lemmy.world

Create post

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.


Our Rules


  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related content.
  3. Be excellent to each another!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots


Community stats

  • 18K

    Monthly active users

  • 12K

    Posts

  • 553K

    Comments