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Old February 20th, 2005, 02:56 PM
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BigDaddy BigDaddy is offline
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Default Re: Random Magic Paths - is it truly random?

It is true that a computer can give numbers that have a nearly random distribution, BUT because they use a distribution (my brother called it an MT, for I think Marsenne Twist) and a seed (from the clock) there is an element of forecasting available that is completely impossible with true random systems. I think ANSI, which regulate random numbers I guess, has determined the the MT is the new method of choice! Still sophisticated software CAN match/nearly match random distributions, but it can't come up with random numbers. Nearly matching distributions is all you have to prove, and I don't believe that it was ever speculated that computers couldn't come close to random. In a logical system such as the computer, its impossible for the PC to pull a number out of it's B***, it's programmed how to follow a distribution.

Bone_daddy, yes, random systems have their own "patterns". Such as the normal distribution, where outliers of very high numbers are explained, but most number fall close to the average.
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