The quest for the true randomness.

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Curiosity Science Physics The quest for the true randomness.

  • We use random numbers every day. Though we all know that it’s not actually a random number, we are doing okay with the numbers that looks like a random thing. I vaguely know about some popular RNG algorithms, but I never explored them in-depth. Anyways, I know that randomness, the entropy, is not so abundant or in other words, not so clear. Natural entropy like radioactive decay, CMB is cool! However, will we ever understand what a true randomness is? Can we ever get to something that’s not theoretically predictable? Or is it because we really don’t possess the perception and capacity to look for it the right way and understand it?

    I just want to get started somewhere and I think it will be cool to drag in some of my readers with me for the quest of finding some good information in this discussion. Your contribution matters.

  • On a quantum scale everything is random. In that case, true randomness exist. Though being a far-fetched idea, Bell’s theorem explains this well:

    No physical theory of local hidden variables can ever reproduce all of the predictions of quantum mechanics.

    As far as we know, there is nothing in the universe that exceed the speed of light. So it is okay for now to say that the quantum events like a radioactive decay of an isotope is close to true randomness and there are no hidden variables known to us that can predict it. Beyond this point, the scope falls into a metaphysical state and questions the validity of the quantum theory.

  • It does make sense about the second law of thermodynamics. When I look the universe with Copenhagen interpretation, the universe is probabistic and I get why we consider the quantum interactions are random. But we don’t know for sure that quantum mechanics is complete. Say if we could measure the position of an electron at a certain time, every theory and principle fails. So that makes the ‘true randomness’ a ‘not sure if it’s truly a randomness’ right? Yes, it’s kind of a near hypothetical case. I guess it would be a true feat of exploration at that time. Hope this timeline favors that.

  • I hope you are familiar with a famous quote of him regarding determinism.

    I am convinced God does not play dice

    For which Niels Bohr responded,

    Stop telling God what to do with his dice.

    We could either chase for it or just drop determinism and get on with our lives in peace.

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