The Universe is Random. Now You Know.

"True randomness is everywhere in nature."

Natural Randomness is not the same as attempted randomness from random numbers. There. We said it.

Noted Princeton physicist John Archibald Wheeler, whose students included Kip Thorne and Richard Feynman, postulated that the universe was not composed of matter and energy, but of information.

While the universe has many interesting qualities, among the most interesting is randomness or entropy. This randomness enables complex systems like the planet’s weather and, well, life in general. We are immersed in randomness and could not even exist without it.

What the universe does not contain is numbers. Numbers are a creation and an artifact of the human mind. Before humans appeared on the scene, there were no numbers. Nowhere in the universe are there random numbers. Humans have endeavored for some time, without success, to create random numbers. After much time, effort and money, the best we have to show are pseudo random number emulations.

Why do we take the trouble when there is a much easier pathway to actual random numbers? Natural randomness is easy to observe. All around us. Lots of instruments can do this. These instruments produce a steady stream of digital signals, like water from a faucet.
We have a constant source of random numbers on demand any time we want, simply by deploying instruments to observe and extract random observations from natural random phenomena. The cost is as nominal as the effort.

Like the student sleeping in the back of Wheeler’s class, why not do it the easy way?