4 ms·
Even the roll of a die could be called non-random, since the numbers that come up are actually the result of a number of forces acting together on the die, incl
by martin1975 9y ago
Even the roll of a die could be called non-random, since the numbers that come up are actually the result of a number of forces acting together on the die, including the force of the rollers hand, gravity, air gusts, the surface they fall on, etc.
Same principle would apply to all the other methods you mentioned since there's always a definite seed value, regardless of how difficult it is for you or another observer to capture it.
All the approaches you listed would result in quality pseudo-random numbers, however, a genuine random number at the source has no apparent cause or series of events leading up to it. Cesium is one such source of genuine, uninspired and uninfluenced source of randomness. Cosmic radiation is probably another although that's probably a lot harder to capture.
Here's a more detailed explanation of why radiation from radioactive decay is bona fide random.
https://www.symmetrymagazine.org/breaking/2009/03/30/real-random https://www.symmetrymagazine.org/breaking/2009/03/30/real-ra...
https://engineering.mit.edu/engage/ask-an-engineer/can-a-computer-generate-a-truly-random-number/ https://engineering.mit.edu/engage/ask-an-engineer/can-a-com...
The NeuG is best described as a high quality PRNG as are most others unless they truly capture some random, cosmic phenomena, like echoes from the big bang detectable as cosmic background radiation.. Allegedly nothing tops the big bang as a random number generator.
- sjsbsh 9y agoWhy cesium? Why not tritium? Or any other of the thousands of radioactive isotopes? Heck, the decay of an excited electron is unpredictable by heisenburg’ Uncertainty principle (delta(E) delta(t) > planks constant) which means any excited state, including an excited e-h pair can be made into an RNG
- Tomte 9y agoFrom your article: "So how does this lead to random numbers? Statistically, a cesium-137 atom has a fifty-fifty chance of decaying in 30.17 years. BUT, there is absolutely, positively no way to predict exactly when any individual atom will decay." Still no difference to shot noise or avalanche noise. You have a statistic that says how many electrons you exppect to see, but no foundational knowledge which electron will be seen at what point in time. I find your point of view very esoteric.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]