What's in a Name? Why We Named Shakespeare, Shakespeare

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet."

When we launched Shakespeare, people immediately asked: "Why Shakespeare?" The name wasn't random—it captures several core truths about what we're building and why it matters.

1. AI is Theater

The conversation between you and an AI assistant is structured like a play. When you chat with Shakespeare, you're not just typing messages into a void—you're participating in a performance where each participant has a clearly defined role.

Behind the scenes, every AI conversation follows a theatrical script format. Here's what a typical Shakespeare conversation actually looks like to the LLM:

Each message has a role: system sets the stage and defines the AI's character, user provides direction and feedback, assistant performs the work, and tool represents the results of actions taken. The LLM's job is to predict what the Assistant character would say or do next—exactly like an actor performing their lines in a play.

This theatrical structure isn't just a metaphor. It's literally how modern LLMs process conversations. The model doesn't "think" or "understand"—it performs. It predicts the next line in the script based on the roles, the context, and everything that came before.

Understanding this helps explain both the power and limitations of AI. Like a talented actor, an LLM can deliver brilliant performances when given good direction and context. But also like an actor, it can only work with what's in the script—the training data, the system prompt, and the conversation history.

2. The Infinite Monkey Theorem

You've probably heard the thought experiment: put a monkey at a typewriter for an infinite amount of time, and eventually it will randomly type the complete works of Shakespeare. The idea comes from probability theory—given enough random attempts, even the most unlikely outcomes become inevitable.

This is exactly how we think about "vibe coding" and the explosion of AI-generated apps. Most vibe-coded apps won't be good. Many will be buggy, poorly designed, or abandoned after a few hours. That's fine. That's expected. But if we—the metaphorical monkeys—make enough apps, eventually some of them will be Shakespeare-level masterpieces.

AI dramatically lowers the barrier to creation. What used to take weeks of development can now happen in hours. What required a team of specialists can now be built by a single person with a vision. This means we can try more ideas, experiment faster, and fail cheaper.

For Nostr specifically, this approach is revolutionary. Unlike the Fediverse or Bluesky, Nostr is one of the only open protocols where you can build entire frontend clients without having to manage your own backend infrastructure. This means anyone can create a Nostr app with just frontend code—no servers, no databases, no DevOps expertise required. The protocol needs more apps, more experiments, more diverse use cases. If Shakespeare enables hundreds or thousands of people to build Nostr apps—even if 90% of them fail—the 10% that succeed will bring new users, new ideas, and new energy to the ecosystem.

Our goal is to help build that one Shakespeare-level app that brings millions of people into Nostr. We don't know which app it will be, who will build it, or when it will happen. But we know it won't come from gatekeeping or continuing to try things the old way. It will come from abundance—from giving as many people as possible the tools to create.

3. A Man of the People

William Shakespeare wasn't royalty. He wasn't from a wealthy family or educated at elite institutions. He was the son of a glove maker from Stratford-upon-Avon—an ordinary person with extraordinary talent for creation and storytelling. He made his work accessible to everyone, from groundlings standing in the pit to nobles in the galleries.

Shakespeare the playwright helped democratize language itself. He coined over 1,700 words and popularized countless phrases that people were already using in everyday speech but had never been written down. Terms like "break the ice," "wild goose chase," and "heart of gold" all come from Shakespeare's plays. He took the vernacular of common people and elevated it to high art.

This is exactly what we're trying to do with Shakespeare the tool. We're taking something that used to require expensive education, specialized training, and access to exclusive resources—software development—and making it accessible to everyone with an internet connection.

You don't need a computer science degree to build with Shakespeare. You don't need to understand React, TypeScript, or Nostr protocol internals. You don't even need to know how to code. You just need an idea and the ability to describe what you want.

This democratization matters because the best ideas don't always come from the people with the most technical training. A community organizer might understand exactly what tools activists need. An artist might envision a new way to share creative work. A teacher might know how to make learning accessible. These people shouldn't need to spend years learning to code just to build their vision.

4. Free Culture and Derivative Works

Shakespeare's work entered the public domain centuries ago, and the result has been an explosion of creativity. Modern culture is filled with Shakespeare derivatives—adaptations, remixes, and reimaginings that wouldn't exist if his plays were locked behind copyright.

Consider just a few examples:

• The Lion King (Hamlet)
• West Side Story (Romeo and Juliet)
• 10 Things I Hate About You (The Taming of the Shrew)
• She's the Man (Twelfth Night)
• Throne of Blood (Macbeth)
• Ran (King Lear)
• Warm Bodies (Romeo and Juliet)
• O (Othello)
• Gnomeo & Juliet (Romeo and Juliet)
• Forbidden Planet (The Tempest)

None of these would exist if Shakespeare's work were copyrighted. Some are faithful adaptations, others wildly creative reinterpretations. Some are masterpieces, others are forgettable. But all represent freedom—the freedom to build on what came before, to remix, to reimagine, to create something new from existing foundations.

This is the ethos behind all of Soapbox's open source work. Every tool we build—Shakespeare, Ditto, MKStack, Stacks, Nostrify—is freely available for anyone to use, modify, and build upon.

Now consider the alternative future: What if AI development follows the path of copyright maximalism instead of free culture? What innovations would never happen if AI is locked down behind corporate paywalls, restrictive licenses, and patents?

We're already seeing this tension play out. OpenAI began with promises of openness but shifted toward closed, proprietary systems. Other companies follow similar patterns—promising openness while building walled gardens.

A future where AI is controlled by a few corporations is a future where innovation is constrained by profit motives rather than human needs. It's a future where the next great breakthrough might never happen because it doesn't serve quarterly earnings. It's a future where derivative works—the remixes, the adaptations, the wild experiments—never get created because the original is locked away.

Open source AI and free software are the alternative. They ensure that anyone can build, anyone can innovate, and anyone can create the next great derivative work. Just like Shakespeare's plays enabled centuries of creative reinterpretation, open AI tools can enable an explosion of innovation that benefits everyone.

Building Through Abundance

We believe Nostr's future depends on abundance—more apps, more experiments, more creators. Shakespeare is our contribution to that abundance. It won't guarantee success, but it dramatically improves the odds.

So when people ask "What's in a name?" the answer is: everything. Shakespeare isn't just what we called our tool. It's why we built it and what we hope it becomes—a catalyst for creation, a tool for the people, and a foundation for infinite derivative works that we can't even imagine yet.

Related Reading

• The Shakespeare Origin Story: From Goose to Browser-Based AI Development
• Free Software: Free Societies
• Chorus: An Experiment in Vibe Coding
• Shakespeare Act 2: Build Freely
• MKStack Tutorial: Vibe Coding for Everyone
• Try Shakespeare
• William Shakespeare Biography - Britannica
• Infinite Monkey Theorem - Wikipedia