As long as deterministic physical laws are in control, is anything above the quantum scale ever totally, truly, and demonstrably random? (A lot seems to depend on whether the quantum level events ever intrude into the level above, where physical law applies.)

Also, I’ll toss in Benford’s Law, a law applying to many sets of naturally occurring…[Read more]

That’s another shortcoming of Religion, Philosophy, and Political Theory: Not enough life-hacks.

Yeah. Political theory only led up to many of the rights and freedoms we enjoy everyday. But that pales in comparison with political theory’s terrible lack of life hacks: like how to keep a bag of rice properly closed or the best method for keeping y…[Read more]

When possible software random number generators often employ a “seed” input to help keep the result as random as possible. Sometimes the seed is something like a voltage noise measurement (good) or the current time and date (not as good).

I feel like this fits the same linguistic pattern as ‘free’. In the abstract, we can define them in absolute terms. But in practical application, we use these words in a relative sense. I play D&D with friends. A die roll or a digital roll generator are random with respect to our influence and predictive abilities. The roll is random in the…[Read more]

Reg the Fronkey Farmer wrote:

If you get the computer to produce the sequence then it is not really a random number as it is based on a program written to generate the numbers.

If you were to rearrange the numbers on the number pad ( The zero key could be anything from 1-9) and then allow your office cat to walk on the keyboard (as they do!) then…

[Read more]

If you get the computer to produce the sequence then it is not really a random number as it is based on a program written to generate the numbers.

If you were to rearrange the numbers on the number pad ( The zero key could be anything from 1-9) and then allow your office cat to walk on the keyboard (as they do!) then is that number “more random”…[Read more]

TheEncogitationer wrote:

Naturally, you release the P.O.W.s after you’ve defeated your enemy and you’ve kicked the tires and looked under the hood of the peace offering.

I’m sure the WWII German military included soldiers who participated in WWI. I can think of one very famous one in particular. Had he been a prisoner of Athens, there’s a goo…[Read more]

Unseen,

The “third option” didn’t appeal to the Athenians because then the enemy could get a second bite at the apple of warring against Athens. That was their logic, like it or don’t.

Naturally, you release the P.O.W.s after you’ve defeated your enemy and you’ve kicked the tires and looked under the hood of the peace offering.

That’s another…[Read more]