On 28 December 2013 17:15, Jason Resch <[email protected]> wrote: > On Fri, Dec 27, 2013 at 11:06 PM, LizR <[email protected]> wrote: > >> Clearly programmes don't have to be deterministic. They could contain a >> source of genuine randomness, in principle. >> > > That source, if it is within the program, would necessarily be > deterministic. If it is external to the program, then it is more properly > treated as an input to the program rather than a part of the program itself. > > In practice, computers draw on sources of environmental noise such as > delays between keystrokes, timing of the reception of network traffic, and > delays in accessing data off of hard drives, etc. These steps are necessary > precisely because programs cannot produce randomness on their own. > > I knew that - honest! :-)
I was answering the question as posed. I believe that in practice all real-world programmes are deterministic, and (more to the point) the UD is. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
