RANDOM
Charles François (2004). RANDOM, International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics, 2(2): 2710.
| Collection | International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics |
|---|---|
| Year | 2004 |
| Vol. (num.) | 2(2) |
| ID | ◀ 2710 ▶ |
| Object type | General information |
In G. BATESON words: “A sequence of events is said to be random if there is no way of predicting the next event of a given kind from the event or events that have preceeded and if the system obeys the regularities of probability ”(1979, p. 30)
He adds “Note that the events which we say are random, are always members of some limited set ”(Ibid)
Absolute randomness is either experimentally fabricated, for example by throwing dices, or a mathematical model . It has been discovered that randomness is generally merely relative in observed events and corresponds to deterministic chaos or self-organized criticality . Absolutely random events would be possible only in the absence of any constraints , internal or external.