Is Anything Truly Random?

“Nothing in Nature is random. … A thing appears random only through the incompleteness of our knowledge.”

This quote, stated by the eminent Dutch philosopher Baruch Spinoza, proves to be a universal truth; true randomness is nothing more than chaos and entanglement in disguise.

In order to be able to better understand this question, it is important to define the theoretical premise of “true randomness” being that all possible outcomes must have the exact same probability of occurring. Realistically speaking, however, possible outcome distribution types are conditioned and restricted by a near infinite number of distinct factors and variables; if a random generator is to be considered to be truly random, its possible generations cannot be influenced by the presence of external factors. Real world scenarios cannot experience true randomness as it is unfathomable and unrealistic to expect an absence of conditional or influential variables in the generation of a random sequence of outcomes. Applying this to the programming world, a computer cannot generate a truly random value. “On a completely deterministic machine you can’t generate anything you could really call a random sequence of numbers,” says Ward, “because the machine is following the same algorithm to generate them. Typically, that means it starts with a common ‘seed’ number and then follows a pattern” (Rubin 2011). This algorithm yields a pattern difficult to identify, however, as it is governed by a consistently repeated algorithm, the values generated are not truly random; these values are called pseudo-random numbers. Though not completely random, pseudo-random number generators, in many cases, do fulfill a sufficient enough job of producing a seemingly random value for the programmer. True random number generators, on the other hand, extract randomness from physical phenomena such as atmospheric noise. As said generators rely on the external factor of physical phenomena, they cannot be considered “truly” random as they too rely on conditional variables in the generation of a random value.

Therefore, “truly randomness” only applies to the production of an outcome absent from the influence of any external factors; as a result of this condition, true randomness does not exist.

Works Cited

Haahr, Mads. “True Random Number Service.” RANDOM.ORG – Introduction to Randomness and Random Numbers, www.random.org/randomness/.

“Home.” Mit Engineering, engineering.mit.edu/engage/ask-an-engineer/can-a-computer-generate-a-truly-random-number/.