Radoslaw Skorupka wrote:
No hardware or software (or both) generates random numbers. The numbers are
always pseudo-> random. However the level (intensity) of "pseuso" is
different. Sometimes good enough. Some-
times even not known.
This is true a fortiori for computer software. For computer hardware, it is
not.
MIT's Whirlwind contained a 'true' random number generator that used a
shot-noiise source. The problem with it was sui generis. Because the
sequences it generated were irreproducible programs that used its outputs
were in practice impossible to test and maintain.
Since then pseudo-random number generators that do yield reproducible
sequences have mostly been used instead, even though, in von Neumann's
words, everyone who uses one is "in a state of sin".
John Gilmore
Ashland, MA 01721-1817
USA
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