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RE: Genetic Programming or breeding Perls

by Petruchio (Vicar)
on Sep 24, 2000 at 10:26 UTC ( #33830=note: print w/ replies, xml ) Need Help??

in reply to Genetic Programming or breeding Perls

I think I can pretty safely say that no number of monkeys, under any circumstances, will ever reproduce a single Shakespeare novel... since he was a playwright, and not a novelist. Sorry to nitpick. :-)

Ay, mistress, and Petruchio is the master;
That teacheth tricks eleven and twenty long
- Shakespeare

Comment on RE: Genetic Programming or breeding Perls
RE: RE: Genetic Programming or breeding Perls
by Thomax (Novice) on Oct 05, 2000 at 15:48 UTC
    I believe your statement is false. Shakespeare was a human. Humans are primates. Primates are monkeys. Thus, a monkey did in fact write all Shakespearean novels! Imagine what any number of monkeys, under any circumstance could do! Now who's nitpicking? :-) cheers, Thomax "What find I here? Fair Portia's counterfeit! What demi-god Hath come so near creation?" -- Shakespeare (Bassanio in The Merchant of Venice)
      Actually monkeys are primates but not the other way around.



        Making three groups of the primates, you'd do better to refer to prosimians, rather than lemurs. Prosimians include various lemurs, dwarf lemurs, cifaks, pottos, aye-ayes, bush babys, tarsiers, lorises, and probably a few other families I'm forgetting. Some of these have tails, some of them don't.

        In case you're wondering, I know such things because I had a girlfriend once who was really into prosimians. And actually, they are pretty cool.

      Thou liest, thou jesting monkey, thou - The Tempest :-)

      As tilly kindly pointed out, only some primates are monkeys, and humans are not amongst these.

      Some people might still say that, "a monkey did in fact write all Shakespearean novels". Predicating a quality (written by a monkey) to a non-existent object (a Shakespearean novel) is logically problematic. And these problems are very interesting, though I'm sorry to say that I no longer remember them well enough to speak knowledgeably about them.

      In any case, it doesn't matter. Let's say a monkey did write all Shakespearean novels (in which case so did each of the squirrels in my yard... and indeed, they wrote themselves, too. The novels that is, not the squirrels). Still, I said a monkey would never reproduce a single Shakespeare novel, and that holds true.

      It interests me, however, that in the same post you claim both to be a monkey and to be picking nits... at least you seem well-groomed. ;-)

      Now, God help thee, poor monkey! - Macbeth



                - tye (but my friends call me "Tye")

        Did Shakespeare actually write novels, though? That's the real question here, if you ask me.

        And is a Shakespearean novel different from a novel written by Shakespeare? Arguably, "Shakespearean" would mean "written at the time of Shakespeare" or "written in the style of Shakespeare", either of which would mean that Shakespeare's own novels (if, in fact, he wrote any, which I suspect he didn't) would, by definition, be Shakespearean.


      (Monkeys have prehensile tails. Apes do not. Shakespeare might be counted as an ape, but for some minor taxonomical differences.)

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