--> Problem Background

An engineer at a computer security company is given a work assignment.
CEO's refer to this as pushing an assignment to a monkey, or monkey business.
CEO's have two roles.  They will either push work to monkies, or tell
a "monkey" to stop the assignment they are working on (presumably to start
another one if the are always running around in circles doing the same
thing without changing the state of the problem.  This is something that
monkies often do).

--> Problem Definition

The assignment consists of a lined sheet of paper, each line consisting
of an initial value.  Assigments once stating with an initial value for
each line, can only from then on be changed by the monkey.  Each line
contains a value that is finite within the requirements of the assignment. This
value either represents an instruction to carry out, or is used as a reference
note.  These two types of lines, instruction and data, are exchangable
depending on the context (ie, if the value is the current instruction
pointer, or used as memory).  Instructions can only do a very small number
of things.  They can jump to other instructions within the sheet of
paper, or they can modify other lines on the sheet of paper.  A couple of
lines on the sheet are reserved.  The current line number representing
the instruction pointer (or program counter) is marked on line in the sheet as
the instructions are executed.  Another line is used as a flag to save
conditional testing results.  If any valid values for data do not represent an
instruction and this is the current instruction to execute, the monkey will
stop processing and go back to the CEO for help (or an outburst).  The monkey
begins processing on line indicated by the initial value of the instruction
pointer, and will continue until he hits a halting instruction (illegal
instruction for instance).

--> The Approach

Monkey business occurs as usual on Monday morning.  The monkey is given
a work assignment.  The monkey however has access to a photocopier machine
in the office (and an enormous supply of paper).  He starts processing the
instructions.  Directly before carrying out the current instruction, he makes
a photocopy of the sheet of paper.  After he does this, he asks his assistant
if he/she can file this in his cabinet.  The monkey however is a pedant for
efficiency and asks the assistant to make sure not to have any duplicate
copies, and to tell him if this is the case.

--> The Outcome

If indeed the assistant ever does find a duplicate, the monkey storm out of his
cubicle, and into the CEO's office and start rambling about turing tests
and other such nonsense.  After this, the behaviour of our CEO is
deterministic and our monkey will (naturally) be fired for behaving like a
monkey.

--> Questions

The questions are therefore posed given the scenario described.

Is our monkey going to be told to stop the assignment they are working on,
under grounds of not making any progress (and probably lose their employment)?
Maybe our monkey will charge into the CEO's office and also lose their job?

--> Conclusion

I think perhaps after examining this monkey business, that an application
in computing may also be seen, however I'm still working on my current
work assignment, so I  will have to wait until I'm told to stop, or charge
into the CEO's office (to perhaps ramble about the turing test or something).

--
Silvio