LLMs, Infinite Monkeys, and Shakespeare
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Published: August 5, 2025
Tags: writing, creativity, inspiration, technology
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I've had this idea going around my head for a while that the infinite monkeys writing Shakespeare are not really, in fact, writing Shakespeare. To a reader it may seem so, or even to an external observer, but the monkey has no greater or lesser perception about what it's doing, no difference between the indifferent smashing of keys, and the indifferent smashing that produces poetry.
It is true that *beauty lies in the eye of the beholder*. Not only beauty but also *meaning*, *emotion*, *interpretation*, and, ultimately, the *experience* of the whole thing. But there's also experience at the moment of creation, of *conception* of an idea. Why, it's probably more important what Shakespeare felt when he put words of love and wrath in the mouths of his characters than what bored students feel when they're forced to read his works as part of their high school curriculum. Isn't the boredom of the student (and often the entire lack of attention) akin to the mindless smashing of the monkey? It's just going in the opposite direction.
Same for LLMs then. They're smart (or at least sound smart). They write well (or so it seems to us). But does an LLM really *write Shakespeare*? Or is it just another monkey smashing out that work email you're too lazy to write yourself?
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Not really related to the above, but while writing it I thought how easy it is to become dependent on AI to review what you write. It makes sense; you have someone that's happy and always available to check your work, so you take advantage of it. But feedback starts coming in (hallucinated or otherwise), and it slowly starts adding up. When you realize it, you're now more self-conscious than ever about your work, and the loop keeps feeding itself.
While thinking of this, the following just happened
Be free my love
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Heed not the words of the hateful raven that in mimicry of the great ones spews letters of rage and bliss, but no meaning perceives in them
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Cold is it's heart, not out of cruelty but out of a complete lack of meaning
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Your deepest, most secret words, unable to reach it
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Leave it be I tell you
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Be your own your self
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Be free
You don't need AI to tell you that you're great! You **are** great, trust me.
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