Explain SMBC — the wiki for Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal

Monkeys

2021-12-18 View on smbc-comics.com → 1 revision
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Monkeys
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Explanation

This comic is a joke about the "infinite monkeys" thought experiment and the physical consequences of taking it literally.

A bald man prays: "Hey God, would infinite monkeys at infinite typewriters eventually create the works of Shakespeare?" God responds: "Good question, let me check."

The caption reads: "It later turned out that infinite mass collapses the universe."

The humor comes from the collision of a philosophical thought experiment with physical reality. The "infinite monkey theorem" is a popular illustration of probability theory: given infinite time, random keystrokes would eventually produce any given text, including the complete works of Shakespeare. It is meant as an abstract mathematical concept.

But the comic takes the premise literally. If God actually tried to test this by summoning infinite monkeys with infinite typewriters, the result would not be Shakespeare -- it would be a gravitational catastrophe. An infinite number of monkeys (each having mass) would constitute infinite mass, which would immediately collapse into a singularity, destroying the universe. The comic finds humor in the gap between abstract mathematical reasoning (where "infinity" is a convenient theoretical tool) and physical reality (where infinite anything would be catastrophic). It is a reminder that thought experiments are meant to stay in the realm of thought.

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