• Fades@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    It’s not just about not wanting random, but randomness is actually very hard to create. Every random number is actual pseudo random

    Some basic breakdowns of this concept:

    https://slate.com/technology/2022/06/bridle-ways-of-being-excerpt-computer-randomness.html

    The problem modern computers have with randomness is that it doesn’t make mathematical sense. You can’t program a computer to produce true randomness—wherein no element has any consistent, rule-based relationship to any other element—because then it wouldn’t be random. There would always be some underlying structure to the randomness, some mathematics of its generation, which would allow you to reverse-engineer and re-create it. Ergo: not random.

    Kid friendly version:

    https://stackoverflow.com/a/633085

    • Asifall@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      For the purpose of shuffling a playlist pseudo random is indistinguishable from truly random in all the ways that matter anyway.

    • Ultraviolet@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      This is an irrelevant distinction for any case where you aren’t worried about someone reverse engineering the algorithm and seed by logging output. Any half decent PRNG’s output will be statistically indistinguishable from true randomness.