RND

It started with a rain delay.

I flipped channels and found a program on cheaters at the casinos. A guy cracked the slot machine codes and told his friends, who then made lots of money. But he also worked for the gaming commission, so he was discovered and went to jail for a long, long time (unlike the guy who broke the ‘random’ code on Press Your Luck and got to keep his winnings- the biggest payout of any game show at that time- because he really didn’t cheat). Anyway, slot machine guy made the comment that ‘computer chips are incapable of generating truly random numbers.’

What?

I wrote a program for a weekly drawing at a private club using this function, and now I learn that it’s not really random? Oh no! A biased drawing? (Not really, with the low numbers of member entries and high number of table arrays involved, but it’s certainly not unpredictable. Just like the slot machines or the Whammy’s next position, with the right program or knowledge, you could pick the next winner.)

So what’s it take to make a random number?

I remember using random number tables for research purposes. We had to pick a page at random, or by rolling dice to pick the page #, then close our eyes and point to an area with our pencil tips. Then we followed down the column of numbers to get numbers or match from a preassigned list. With calculators and computers, we then just started hitting the RND button. But while unbiased, these generated numbers are not really random, and can never be.

Why?

I decided to research a little (you know how I like to research things).

From http://www.random.org: (parentheses mine)

Computer engineers chose to introduce randomness into computers in the form of pseudo-random number generators. As the name suggests, pseudo-random numbers are not truly random. Rather, they are computed from a mathematical formula or simply taken from a (long) pre calculated list.

True random numbers are typically generated by sampling and processing a source of entropy outside the computer. A source of entropy can be very simple, like the little variations in somebody’s mouse movements or in the amount of time between keystrokes (or closing your eyes and pointing to any part of the page with random tables). A really good source of entropy is a radioactive source. The points in time at which a radioactive source decays are completely unpredictable…

…this site uses atmospheric noise to generate random numbers:
with replacement (a weekly drawing): http://www.random.org/nform.html
sequences- without replacement (your cd playlist): http://www.random.org/sform.html

After thinking for awhile, it all made sense, I mean, they work on formulas and logic and 1’s and 0’s. They use rules and variables to decide what to do next, it’s a deterministic process…

That’s it! Determinism vs. Free Will! Fate is forever sealed within the logic of the computer, and there’s a key to be found. Within the system, there are decisions made but no choices. But with our actions, within our environmental framework, there is chaos, randomness, and choice.

(Were you paying attention to the philosophy in the Matrix trilogy?)

Computers: decisions, but not choice.
People/nature: decisions through choice.

And since the rain is over, I choose to flip back to the ball game.