Read somewhere that if Newton or Einstein or any reknowned scientist did not discover what they discovered, another scientist will eventually discover it. However, without Shakespeare, there will be no Othello or Romeo and Juliet or whatever, because no one else can write the exact same stories.

My brother disagrees. He thinks that art is just a large but still finite number of possible combinations (of colours, shapes, etc) , and that, given a long enough period of time, someone will reach a certain combination.

I don't know what to think. It makes sense logically, but my heart disagrees with it.

It reminds me of the Archilles vs turtle paradox. It's logical, but you just can't accept it.