If a monkey is sat at a typewriter for an infinite amount of time, how long would it take to write the entire works of Shakespeare? The monkey simulator gives you your very own monkey and typewriter, so you can find out for yourself.
The monkey simulator was written by Aaron B. Russell for an episode of the BBC Two television programme Horizon. You can find out more information about the programme here, and you can watch it online at BBC iPlayer (also in HD) between February 10, 2010 and February 24, 2010.
Yes, definitely! Grab a copy here. It requires at least Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard), because it uses Grand Central Dispatch to manage threading.
Unfortunately the Monkey Simulator takes advantage of some Mac OS X specific features, and needs to be rewritten to run under other operating systems. That said, never say never. If you're interested in getting it going, read the next question.
By all means. Visit https://github.com/arussell/infinite-monkey-simulator to get your own copy of the code from the Git repository.
Of course! This software has been released under the New BSD License, meaning you can take the code and do anything you like with it, including copying for your friends, altering and tweaking it, and even making and selling commercial products without paying royalties to the creators, on the conditions that you:
- Keep the copyright notices in both source and binary forms of the program
- Don't use the name of Aaron B. Russell or the BBC to promote your own product(s)
- Accept that Aaron B. Russell and the BBC are not responsible for any damages as a result of your use of this programme