“Random numbers are to a computer what free will is to a human being.”
Robert A. Heinlein book The Number of the Beast
Source: The Number of the Beast (1980), Chapter XXI : —three seconds is a long time—, p. 180
“Random numbers should not be generated with a method chosen at random”
Vol. II, Seminumerical Algorithms
The Art of Computer Programming (1968–2011)
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Donald Ervin Knuth32
American computer scientist 1938Related quotes
John Von Neumann (1903–1957) Hungarian-American mathematician and polymath
On mistaking pseudorandom number generators for being truly "random" — this quote is often erroneously interpreted to mean that von Neumann was against the use of pseudorandom numbers, when in reality he was cautioning about misunderstanding their true nature while advocating their use. From "Various techniques used in connection with random digits" by John von Neumann in Monte Carlo Method (1951) edited by A.S. Householder, G.E. Forsythe, and H.H. Germond <!-- National Bureau of Standards Applied Mathematics Series, 12 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1951): 36-38. -->
Context: Any one who considers arithmetical methods of producing random digits is, of course, in a state of sin. For, as has been pointed out several times, there is no such thing as a random number — there are only methods to produce random numbers, and a strict arithmetic procedure of course is not such a method.
“Mutation is random; natural selection is the very opposite of random.”
Richard Dawkins book The Blind Watchmaker
Source: The Blind Watchmaker (1986), Chapter 2 “Good Design” (p. 41)
Nassim Nicholas Taleb (1960) Lebanese-American essayist, scholar, statistician, former trader and risk analyst
Source: The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable (2007), p. 198
“Random speculative pseudo information should be removed, unless it can be sourced.”
Jimmy Wales (1966) Wikipedia co-founder and American Internet entrepreneur
Zero information is preferred to misleading or false information https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikien-l/2006-May/046440.html - Email to WikiEN-l, Tue May 16 20:30:15 UTC 2006 <br class="br">About falseness
William Feller (1906–1970) Croatian-American mathematician
Source: An Introduction To Probability Theory And Its Applications (Third Edition), Chapter XV, Markov Chains, p. 407.
John D. Barrow (1952–2020) British scientist
New Theories of Everything (2007)
Context: We say that the string is 'random' if there is no other representation of the string which is shorter than itself. But we will say that it is 'non-random' if there does exist such an abbreviated representation.... In general, the shorter the possible representation... the less random... On this view we recognize science to be the search for algorithmic compressions.<!--Ch. 1, p. 11
Vladimir Lenin (1870–1924) Russian politician, led the October Revolution
"Communism and New Economic Policy",(April 1921)
1920s
Nassim Nicholas Taleb book Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder
Source: Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder (2012), p. 102