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So does this mean that the primes actually distribute based on some pseudo random pattern? Certainly that is trivializing things but is this what the notion of

• lutusp 12y ago
  > So does this mean that the primes actually distribute based on some pseudo random pattern? To prove this, we would have to identify the hypothetical pseudorandom pattern. If we successfully identified the pattern, we could locate primes deterministically. If we could locate primes deterministically, modern encryption would collapse. So ... no. No one knows how primes are distributed among composites, and there may be no pattern, as that term is generally understood. > Certainly that is trivializing things but is this what the notion of the numbers acting random, but clearly not being random implies? Yes, but with the important distinction that a pseudorandom pattern can be recreated, given the genesis of the pattern. For example, a pseudorandom number generator will produce exactly the same pseudorandom numbers for a given initializing "seed" number. As to the primes, it's possible that their placement among the composites obeys a pattern, but we don't know what that pattern is, and this is a matter of great mathematical interest.