Hi, everybody,
Now that the recent burst of metaphysics is completed, I was curious about your
take on the following quote, which is from a footnote in Dennett's Real
Patterns:
More precisely: 'A series of numbers is random if the smallest algorithm
capable of specifying it to a computer
On Thu, Apr 23, 2009 at 1:05 AM, Nicholas Thompson
nickthomp...@earthlink.net wrote:
Can anybody help me understand this. (Please try to say something more
helpful than the well-deserved, Well, why do you THINK they call it
pseudo-random, you dummy?)What DOES a pseudo randomizing program
There are two conflicting definitions of randomness being used here.
The purpose of a pseudo-random number generator (PRNG) on a computer
is to provide a sequence of numbers that is statistically
indistinguishable from random noise. Good PRNG cover their range
completely and do not show
Thanks, Roger. Had no problem getting the articles.
Merle
Roger Critchlow wrote:
This week's issue of http://pnas.org has a special section on complexity:
In this issue, all of the articles address problems of complexity in
organisms. Topics range from information processing in their
Here's an interesting article http://www.slate.com/id/2216012/pagenum/all/ ,
pointing out the dangers of giving too much weight to global warming,
without considering other ecological consequences.
Cheers,
Ted
FRIAM Applied Complexity
I suppose Dennett is implying that the linear congruential generator below
would take at least the number of bits in variables a, b, m, and x[0]. If
those are 1-byte integers, then the bit count is at least 32 bits. Theres
overhead for the actual code too. How do you measure that? Suppose the
Possibly of interest..
http://www.cs.rice.edu/~kvp1
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/feb2005/tc2005024_2426_tc024.htm
http://www.technologyreview.com/read_article.aspx?ch=specialsectionssc=emerging08id=20246
FRIAM
Speaking of unintended consequences, Jorge Cham draws the PhD (Piled Higher
and Deeper) comic strip. I've extracted one
panelhttp://bluecatblog.wordpress.com/2009/04/22/how-to-cheat-death-almost/from
his latest.
-- Russ
On Thu, Apr 23, 2009 at 11:09 AM, Ted Carmichael teds...@gmail.com wrote:
