Is random really random?

yellowperil

Diamond Member
Jan 17, 2000
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I was over at the Foreknowledge, Fatalism, And Free Will thread and it reminded me of a question I was pondering. How do computers generate random numbers, and are they really random? I'm no math or computer genius by any means, but I've used the RAND function in QBasic :) and I recently did an experiment in human memory testing digit span and used a random digit string generating program. Given that the study of science demands that events be deterministic and materialistic (that events have causes, and that these causes are natural and not from some supernatural phenomenon), it appears that you could find a way to explain every 'random' number that a computer generates. Any thoughts?
 

RaynorWolfcastle

Diamond Member
Feb 8, 2001
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I vaguely remember hearing something about that when Intel said that they would put a random number generator in coppermines that was based on detecting the "subatomic buzz"
 

erub

Diamond Member
Jun 21, 2000
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PSUEDORANDOM

sorry a joke from our C++ class. No computer generated #s are not random. They usually use the clock value to seed a random # generator, so therefore they could be predicted. But it is pretty hard to do so, and the #s come up different all the time.....
 

yellowperil

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Jan 17, 2000
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Ah, thanks for clearing that up, erub. I can sleep more soundly tonight.

Then again, what causes the randomness of the clock value? :)
 

nd

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Oct 9, 1999
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Many people believe that NOTHING in this universe is random. I.e.. given the exact same conditions, the same exact thing will happen each time. This makes a lot of sense.

Then you get into the whole issue of electrons and the uncertainty principle.. which Einstein and others debated about.. ("God doesn't throw dice") so there could possibly be a random element to this universe.. it hasn't been proven yet though. Stephen Hawkings believe there are random elements.

As far as computer random numbers.. they're based on several different algorithms... some of them are clock based, some of them are based on noise.. but even noise is considered an input.. so you would always get the same output from that input. It's a function.