Republicans Know Why Americans Don’t Fear Authoritarians
Because they asked them.
I have been thinking a lot lately about chimp brains. Although we share 98.8% of our DNA with our simian cousins, chimpanzees can’t craft poems or solve elegant proofs.
Or can they?
You might have heard of a famous thought experiment called the “infinite monkey theorem.” It hypothesizes that if you let a metaphorical monkey randomly hit the keys of a typewriter an infinite amount of times, eventually, the monkey will type the complete works of William Shakespeare.
On a deeper level, the theorem posits that although human intelligence has evolved, the brilliance of Shakespeare or the elegance of a mathematical proof could, in theory, arise without any intelligent design. As humans rely more on AI, this thought experiment is prescient. Is “intelligence” truly understanding, or is it merely mimicking patterns that seem coherent? If the infinite monkey theorem is correct, give a chimp a typewriter, and he will craft the great American novel…eventually.
To test this theory, Australian mathematicians Stephen Woodcock and Jay Falletta calculated whether chimpanzees with a typewriter and infinite time could showcase their apeish brilliance. (If my editor is reading this, I repeat…infinite time.)
