Thursday, July 29, 2010

Mortals and random numbers

"Sit and write 100 random numbers and upload it in the software you are developing!"

By this statement, I was not playing a fool.

My friend, at office was trying to figure out how to generate an extreme random number using a computer language. We can provide logical process to generate a random number everytime, but then they are not really random. We came up with solution 1 to increase the randomness of the number. It looked like a brilliant idea. But we forgot something intutive.

Can we quantify randomness? A number is either random or its not. Its like a yes or a no. I would be wrong if the below conversation makes any sense-

Person 1- Is it raining?
Person 2- Eighty three

It is at this point I invented another method by which the ultimate number can be generated. Thats when I had this idea and I said what I said (Refer to the 1st line of this article).

Us mortals are the only ones who can generate true random numbers.

What we didn't realise that we were discussing the secrets of life in the light of its very definition or something similar. It felt like something we already knew.

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