However, according to a new study, that would take an incredibly long time to happen — far longer than the expected lifespan of the universe. In other words, it’s basically impossible for a monkey to actually type out Shakespeare’s works by mere random keystrokes.

Mathematicians Stephen Woodcock and Jay Falletta from University of Technology Sydney (UTS) decided to investigate the theorem in the context of our finite universe:

“The infinite monkey theorem assumes an infinite amount of time or an infinite number of monkeys. We decided to look at the probability that a given sequence of letters would be written by a finite number of monkeys within the expected lifetime of the universe.”