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The man and the monkey!

Discussion in 'Cheeniya's Senile Ramblings' started by Cheeniya, Nov 17, 2015.

  1. shyamala1234

    shyamala1234 Platinum IL'ite

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    I am enjoying the thread....interaction between you and OJ sir. Continue with it.
    Syamala
     
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  2. Cheeniya

    Cheeniya Super Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

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    Hello Vani
    Welcome to my Ramblings! I am happy that you find this thread interesting.
    Sri
     
  3. Cheeniya

    Cheeniya Super Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

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    My dear Syamala
    Stay on! OJ has promised to keep coming back to this thread. He is a storehouse of knowledge particularly on the subject of restless monkeys that have additionally an itchy back. When he talks about it, I am totally enthused to write more!
    Sri
     
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  4. PushpavalliSrinivasan

    PushpavalliSrinivasan IL Hall of Fame

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    Dear Mr Cheeniya,

    I have not read about Aldous Huxley's monkey story, but happy that it gave us an opportunity to read an interesting ramble from our favorite writer.

    Monkey stories are always interesting as they are intelligent. Kamber's sollin selvan Anuman is the most appropriate example.



    I google searched to find out more about monkeys intelligence. I found an article in sciencedaily.com and found in this article humans and monkeys share Machiavellian intelligence.

    A Monkey can-type randomlyShakespeare's all sonnets! Wonderful!

    Here A human is struggling to type a feedback with a single finger!
    I am happy to note that I can compare myself with the IL's most favorite writer Mr Cheeniya at least in this one aspect. But I use my middle finger not the index finger.

    Like Lord Ganesha Lord Anjaneya also has temples at every nook and corner.

    PS

     
  5. Cheeniya

    Cheeniya Super Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

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    Dear PS
    Thank you for your visit to my latest Ramble! Interesting to note that you are a single finger typist like me! Even Huxley's monkey would use a single finger to type out all of Shakespeare's work because monkeys are known for multitasking with their two hands. The late politician Ma.Po.Si was also given the title of Sollin Selvar. Cho interpreted as if Ma.Po.Si sollin (starts talking) all the people will leave (selvar!)

    I am glad that you googled for more information on monkeys. There is a chapter in Sundara Kandam that deals with the behaviour of drunk monkeys and every time I read it, it reminds me of our Tasmac bars, Amazing how observant Valmiki is! Lord Ganesa and Lord Hanuman are my two favourite gods. The former is the Son of God and the latter is a Servant of God!
    Sri
     
  6. iyerviji

    iyerviji Finest Post Winner

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    My dear Anna

    It was interesting to read your rambling and the feedbacks of everyone. My niece's son who will be 4 years in December narrates about Hanuman very nicely about how he helped Lord Rama , he also adds his own version. When he thinks of Hanuman he always says malai . Once when I had gone to his house when he said malai I made a malai with bedsheet and told him that is malai. He happily carried on his head and from that time he used to call me malai athai patti. For me also Ganeshji and Hanuman are favourite Gods. Because of hip joint problem I find difficult to get into the trains when it is crowded that time I just think of Hanuman and recite Asadhya sadakam swamin and the way becomes clear and I am able to get into the train.
     
  7. Cheeniya

    Cheeniya Super Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

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    My dear Viji
    You created Sanjeevi Malai with a bed sheet? How resourceful you are! When Indrajit struck Lakshman lifeless, Hanuman revived him by bringing Sanjeevi Malai. Without Hanuman, Lord Rama would have found it very difficult to defeat Ravan and his army and yet Hanuman remained a humble servant of Lord Rama. This humility is amazing! There is no 'asadhyam' as far as Hanuman is concerned. Look at any picture of Rama Pattabishekam and the most striking feature of it will be the utter humility of Hanuman.
    Sri
     
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  8. PriyaKathiravan

    PriyaKathiravan Silver IL'ite

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    Sir,
    You have proved once again your non pareil skill of eerai penakki penai perumalakkum kalai . Give a mustard seed, you cook up a feast ! Well relished feast for the weekend. I am burping in satisfaction.
    But there are bees in the bonnet that have to be tackled . In the first place, I am scratching my head like a kurangu wondering how the Huxley brothers got tangled in this affair of monkeys and typewriters . From what I know , I can tell you , that premise is called The Infinite Monkey Theorm and was proposed by Emil Borel , a French Mathametician . It is not a single monkey, but an indefinite / infinite number of monkeys . More importantly , the monkeys he meant were not simian but a metaphor for "random sequencing" . But the imagery caught the imagination of the world , leading to all sorts of ramblings , culminating in your own . At least you stopped at producing a humorous sketch to entertain the indusladies , but some other monkeys went ahead to actually put the theory to test . And ended up with broken keyboards. If you dont believe me , see this link :
    ]Monkeys at typewriters 'close to reproducing Shakespeare' - Telegraph[/COLOR

    The second bee in bonnet is that lady Mandodari . Apparently she was sleeping with her numerous maids and when this celibate peeping tom starts doing a breakdance , smooching his tail , neither she nor her security ladies woke up ? A monkey jumping around in a royally furnished bedroom is bound to be a bull in a china shop , knocking down things . And that tail smooching was bound to be noisy too. Still no one woke up ! Such a deep sleep , what we call Gadandhakara thookkam , inspite of being married to a kidnapper ?

    I envy her inner peace .
     
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  9. Cheeniya

    Cheeniya Super Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

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    Dear Priya
    Monkeys belting out the works of Shakespeare from specially designed keyboards which they cannot break and 'use as lavatory' as alleged in the link that you have provided are just a small part of my ramble. About how Huxleys came to be mixed up with this simian adventure can be answered only with the question, 'Why not the Huxleys?' If Emil Borel who appears to be a big bore being a mathematician can conjure up such a picture, the Huxleys can certainly think of that possibility too. It is certainly callous to attribute something to monkeys and explain it subsequently as 'a metaphor for random sequencing' It is like standing below a rainbow and explaining to people how rainbows are caused without letting them enjoy the awesome spectacle of it. These people need a romantic mind to be able to see the beauty of life rather than exploring the rationale of it. My stern warning to Information Technologists is to leave the monkeys alone. They have already ruined the name and honour of the mice by making a devise not only shaped like a mouse but calling it a mouse too. I wonder how the animal rights activists let it go unnoticed. We have not only cast an unalterable slur on this little creature but left the cats confused too.

    Mandodari is a good sleeper. If one has a husband who keeps yelling not out of one mouth but ten of them all the time, she needs to develop ears that can be shut off to the world at will, at least during the sleeping hours. Only humans can make hideous noise while smooching. Monkeys with their specially designed mouth can make smooching as silent as a cat taking a stroll in the park. I am not saying this to belittle the Inner Peace of Mandodari. It was gifted by God to her to remain in one piece as the consort of Ravana!
    Sri
     
  10. ojaantrik

    ojaantrik IL Hall of Fame

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    Dear Sri,

    My promise to keep coming back reminds me of a propensity that monkeys possess. They keep coming back. I have heard this story (probably true) of a monkey who used to wait outside and watch a young chap studying for his school exams sitting next to the widow inside the room. And this monkey would suddenly slip its arm through the window grill and slap the reader on his cheek, particularly so when he was deeply engrossed in his studies and not keeping a watch over the monkey. Before he could react, the monkey would flee out of reach. Out of sheer disgust, the lad pretended one day to be studying but actually kept all his sense organs alert for the arrival of the monkey. And he sat pretty close to the widow so that the monkey would be able to reach out to him more easily. As on every other day, the monkey arrived, but before it knew what was afoot, our young man slipped his right arm through the grill and dealt a smart slap to the monkey. The monkey was taken by total surprise and fled this time forever.

    Having heard this tale from an older cousin who recently passed away, I am not sure if I should keep coming back. Out of sheer boredom, you may have to kick me in the ass to ensure that I in turn kicked the habit. And, although neither you nor I can ever master the art of kicking ourselves in our respective bottoms, I am almost sure that one human can kick another without much difficulty. Almost, for in this context, I am reminded of another story that I heard from my mother. She had once witnessed a quarrel in the family between two of her seniors (one of them closely linked to R.D. Burman) which ended up with the R.D. link rushing forward to kick the other woman from behind. But she failed in her quest, having lost her balance and fallen flat on her back. Athletic skills are needed not only to kick oneself it would appear, but to kick others as well.

    So much for irrelevant rambling. Coming back to the relevant part I suppose, I am much impressed by the comment made by PriyaKathiravan. Quite clearly, she is familiar with the literature that has developed around the problem at hand, quite irrespective of whether a member of the Huxley family can be credited with the conjecture. To repeat perhaps what she has already said, the chance of a letter such as 'banana' being typed out by randomly pressing the keys of a typewriter with 50 keys is less than one in a billion. 'Random pressing' is of course a statistical modelling of the monkey idea. Statisticians define the word 'random' very carefully let us note. In fact, whether a real monkey will ever behave randomly in the statistical sense is most questionable. But random or no, a monkey typing out Shakespeare is next to impossible. Only next to, but not impossible. At least, for a statistically correct random monkey. Statisticians have ensured that an event with zero probability does not mean that the event cannot occur at all.

    Going further, what is the probability of an infinite sequence of independent and statistically random monkeys producing the word. This time the probability is pretty close to one, if I have not wrongly understood the result. Now, this is food for thought, isn't it? Why restrict ourselves to monkeys alone? How about studying homo sapiens as an alternative. Or even better, human beings alone. What is the probability of the human race as a whole producing the works of Shakespeare through random or even non-random typing. Assuming that the experiment is run over a set of people who have never been introduced to Shakespeare, the chance is pretty close to zero, isn't it? And yet, notice that Shakespeare's works are a reality. An event of zero probability does not mean that the event did not or cannot occur at all.

    Perhaps I am talking rubbish. But what is the probability that a highly refined sample of people, who are acquainted with Shakespeare's sonnets, but not all of them, will be able to produce one that no one in the sample read before. I tend to think it is zero. Or, putting it differently, what are the chances that a young boy learning to play cricket will discover the art of delivering a googly entirely by himself? Pretty small, right? Yet, can we rule it out altogether? I think not.

    Incidentally, you made an important observation in response to my first fb. The fact that Bertie had shown literary talent in Aunt Dahlia's magazine. You are so right. I had forgotten about it, though Bertie does mention it on several occasions. And Jeeves, by comparison, has a somewhat blank looking CV. That's well-established. But a new question has propped up in my mind. Did Bertie ever catch Jeeves giggling all by himself in his solitary chamber? Or singing a lullaby in solitary confinement? You should know, your knowledge of the Woosters and others in the Wodehouse family being encyclopaedic. What was Jeeves' real smile like compared to the one he reserved for Bertie? Any idea? I am changing the subject perhaps, but Jeeves is no less interesting that a statistical monkey.

    oj
     

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