Can a computer create true random numbers?

[Deleted]

when we go into quantum physics doesn't science at that microscopic level become a field of probability instead of certainty and cause and reactions?

Our model is probabilistic. The underlying "reality" could be something else, far as I know. Quotations because the bridge model-reality is a mater of philosophic dispute.

[StayTuned]

It fills the double precision variable a with the infinity placeholder.

Don't waste your time, it's casting pearls before swine.

[Independent voter]

It can if it's hooked up to the right hardware, a radiation random number generator

http://www.blackcatsystems.com/GM/random.html

[Deleted]

Don't waste your time, it's casting pearls before swine.

Sorry, i just tried to show infinity exists in computer languages

[Jayburner]

you guys know nothing. I will go to bed as usual not knowing anything.

[Puupi]

It fills the double precision variable a with the infinity placeholder.

That sounds like something Chewie does to Millenium Falcon when it fails to jump to hyperspace.

[BananaHandsB]

It's open for debate if true randomness really exists at all. Perhaps in quantum processes, but likely those processes are just governed by things we do not understand yet and the apparant randomness is just due to our lack of knowledge, the same way a computer can make seemingly random numbers. But computers certainly cannot create a truly random number as all their algorithms are at a very basic level, deterministic. For any real practical human purpose, a computer can generate numbers that are "random enough" in that no human could predict or discern the pattern, even if they knew the exact algorithm. But if you ran that algorithm enough times and had another computer analyzing with access to the same variables, it could determine the pattern.

Though if we can determine that some quantum processes are truly random, a quantum computer of the future should be able to accomplish the task of generating truly random numbers.

[StayTuned]

Sorry, i just tried to show infinity exists in computer languages

No problem, I just don't know enough to understand what you're talking about. Good to know that infinity exists in computers. Probably not as set values but rather as a value that can be drawn from a nonspecific range?

[DietzThought]

Radioactive decay is random. You could build a machine with detectors and radioactive material inside. Then you need a formula to project the accumulated data onto the interval of numbers you want a random number out of.

[Kyr]

technically no, but effectively yes

[Deleted]

No problem, I just don't know enough to understand what you're talking about. Good to know that infinity exists in computers. Probably not as set values but rather as a value that can be drawn from a nonspecific range?

Actually, you cant do any useful operations with the infinity value. Trying to use it in calculations leads to an exception. In most cases, and based on which compiler you are using.

[BananaHandsB]

It can if it's hooked up to the right hardware, a radiation random number generator

http://www.blackcatsystems.com/GM/random.html

This isn't a computer generating a random number, but simply sampling data from a "random" source. I put random in quotes though as it could be argued we just do not understand radiation and quantum effects thoroughly enough to be able to conclude if there is actually a complex non-random process governing the behavior, it just appears random to us the same way a computer algorithm can appear to generate random numbers.

[Puupi]

No problem, I just don't know enough to understand what you're talking about. Good to know that infinity exists in computers. Probably not as set values but rather as a value that can be drawn from a nonspecific range?

Infinity exists in computers just as it exists outside computers with us humans. The big difference is like when you went to a toy store with your mom as a kid and she told you that you can freely choose whatever toy you want - and you shout "really?!" back to her in awe.....a computer doesn't ask "really?!".

[StayTuned]

Actually, you cant do any useful operations with the infinity value. Trying to use it in calculations leads to an exception. In most cases, and based on which compiler you are using.

Then what's the point of it?

[Masark]

Yes, you just require some kind of non-deterministic phenomenon (shot noise, radio noise, thermal noise, radioactive decay, etc.) it can draw randomness from. This is how hardware random number generators work.

Beyond that, no, because computers are (supposed to be) deterministic. But functions exist that will give you close-enough-for-most-purposes pseudorandom numbers.

[Aggrophobic]

What if I told you that randomness is a myth and all events are governed by strict cause and effect, though in some cases the pattern of causation is too complex for us to understand or otherwise unknown to us?

See, you can't actually know that.
But probably, yes.

[PC2]

You can buy physically unclonable function (PUF) chips. But its not clear whether we could ever generate true random numbers.

[Kuntantee]

Computers collect entropy from devices, like device temperatures. They are random enough, but truly random? God knows...

what does it do?

It always gives you true when compared with > operator.

[Deleted]

Then what's the point of it?

Mainly comparisons. If result is infinte then..

[Jayburner]

I don't know why. It's nice to see people think about this. We could have new internet if figured out.