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The "infinite monkey theorem" is a popular misnomer for an idea from Émile Borel's book on probability, published in 1909. The book introduced the concept of "dactylographic monkeys" seated in front of typewriter keyboards and hitting keys at random. Borel exemplified a proposition in the theory of probability called Kolmogorov's zero-one law by saying that the probability is one that such a monkey will eventually type every book in France's Bibliothèque nationale (national library). There need not be infinitely many monkeys; a single monkey who executes infinitely many keystrokes suffices. Subsequent restatements by other people have replaced the National Library not only with the British Museum but also with the Library of Congress; the most popular retelling says that the monkeys would eventually type out the collected works of William Shakespeare. (more...)

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