Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!seismo!uwvax!uwslh!lishka From: lishka@uwslh.UUCP (Christopher Lishka) Newsgroups: comp.ai Subject: Re: British Museum Message-ID: <228@uwslh.UUCP> Date: Fri, 19-Dec-86 13:27:17 EST Article-I.D.: uwslh.228 Posted: Fri Dec 19 13:27:17 1986 Date-Received: Sat, 20-Dec-86 01:48:18 EST References: <355@unc.unc.UUCP> <200001@uicsg> <1716@sunybcs.UUCP> Reply-To: lishka@uwslh.UUCP (Christopher Lishka) Organization: U of Wisconsin-Madison, State Hygiene Lab Lines: 25 I once read a story that really unerved me several years ago. I don't remember the name or author, but it was a short story in some science fiction compilation. The plot was about a man who thought of doing the "monkeys and typewriters" experiment with a computer. What he had done was to have a computer randomly spit out letters in hopes of achieving the same ends as the infinite number of monkeys theory, except that the time required to end up with an intelligible work would be MUCH shorter because the computer could spit out the characters much faster than a finite number of monkeys with an infinite amount of time. What happened in the end was the computer spit out a best-seller, and made the guy rich. This was not the end of the story, however. I won't give the end of the story away, because for me it was a real surprise and a real shock. If anybody knows the name and author of this short story, please post it, because it was a really good story (or at least that is how I remember it). -- Chris Lishka /lishka@uwslh.uucp Wisconsin State Lab of Hygiene <-lishka%uwslh.uucp@rsch.wisc.edu \{seismo, harvard,topaz,...}!uwvax!uwslh!lishka