10 000 Monkeys

November 24, 2009, 20:42
Filed under: Uncategorized

Someone clever said “If you gave 10 000 monkeys Unlimited of time, paper and ink they would eventually come up with Shakespeare.” More or less this is how internet works today.

Websites such as IMDB and wikipedia that pretty much is run and edited by its audience and the wisdom of the many have triumphed over the few and mighty, Carl Marx is cheering in his grave. But is it all good that everyone can contribute without some form of censorship?

As in the Article by Harrison Hoffman “When the ‘wisdom of crowds’ turns on itself: IMDB edition” he points out that the man in large numbers pretty much functions as one being. A rather simple minded being with few thoughts of other its own. Like how Dark knight could topple the Shawshank Redemtion and the Godfather just because fans of Batman thought it where the flavor of the day. But the weakness of this kind of mob mentality is that they got no perseverance at all. If you look at imdb today you see that order have triumphed and Shawshank Redemption lies at the first place and followed by Coppolas masterpiece The godfather, And dark knight is on a unworthy ninth place.

But is the mob mentality all bad you may ask? No I don’t think it is. With a common thirst for knowledge and truth have resulted in great thing. Wikipedia is one of those things, edited by its own audience and ever growing. Its fascinating to see how that if enough people collaborates they can form a near exact encyclopedia that is more massive then any other of its kind in the history of man. (Well maybe the scrolls of babylon where bigger but they burned up so they cant count)

The internet isn’t a one man information revolution its a world speaking in one voice together and to be heard by all with a computer. Lev Grossman made us all the man of the year 2006 in his article “Time’s Person of the Year: You” And its quite a remarkable thing we have made over the years.

Its not by all means a perfect world and the people of the internet can be very daft and they forget time after time that thinking by yourself is probably the best thing. But despite all of its faults the internet is a perfect example that 10 000 monkeys can write Shakespeare if you just have the patience to let them correct their mistakes.