Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!ucsd!ucsbcsl!silber@sbphy.ucsb.edu
From: silber@sbphy.ucsb.edu
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: random vs. ran(seed) (RE: choice, will, etc. etc.)
Message-ID: <1862@hub.ucsb.edu>
Date: 26 May 89 16:36:57 GMT
Sender: news@hub.ucsb.edu
Organization: UC, Santa Barbara. Physics Computer Services
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Let 'random sequence' (:== a sequence whose observable characteristics
correspond to the observable characteristics of a sequence of physical
events which we identify as 'random'.  If we KNOW that the sequence
was generated by an 'algorithm', then it is PSEUDO-random.  However,
the sequence corresponding to the motivating physical phenomenon (whose
pattern cannot be generated by any algorithm known to us) is
of a different epistemological order, viz. 'RANDOM'.  We can never
transcend the realm of partial knowledge, and even if we believe that
on some ultimate scale everything is pseudo-random, we can't prove it.
so 'free-will' vs. 'determinism' is just a matter of aesthetics!