From: Mike Lorrey (mlorrey@datamann.com)
Date: Wed Sep 11 2002 - 19:14:01 MDT
[quote from: gts@optexinc.com on 2002-09-11 at 16:56:56]
Mike Lorry wrote:
gts wrote:
>> In theory it is possible to get truly random numbers but it requires
>> access to data from quantum processes. For example uranium
>> emits beta particles at genuinely random time intervals.
> Its far simpler than that. You can make your keyboard a random number
> generator. A simple program will time to the nanosecond the amount of
> time between each keystroke while you are typing a given amount of
> text.
Such keystroke generated numbers will usually pass tests for randomness
but they are not genuinely or inherently random.
This is so because you determine your keystroke intervals, even if you
are not conscious of those determinations. Numbers generated by
deterministic processes are not genuinely random.
Sorry, the removal of the significant digits does, in fact, turn a
deterministic process into a random one, specifically because you are
physiologically incapable of deterministically responding at thousandth of
a second degrees of accuracy. The human response speed is a rather large
fraction of a second. Anything smaller than that is just noise, i.e. random.
Even in cases where one is typing serially, the text flow from brain to
fingers does not allow the individual to accurately adjust tempo to anything
shorter than a 1/16th second beat rate, and that is only if one is also a
highly trained percussionist.
---- This message was posted by Mike Lorrey to the Extropians 2002 board on ExI BBS. <http://www.extropy.org/bbs/index.php?board=61;action=display;threadid=52986>
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