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I am in the process of building a brute force applicaiton however when thinking about encoding, there are codes online that use the word "random" however are they actually totally random numbers generated by the computer. I say this because the way havent been taught about how computers work, goes against this word "random"

Am I correct in thinking there is no "random" in computers? or have I misunderstood.

Zee_K
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Various platforms provide a pseudo random number generator, which is:

an algorithm for generating a sequence of numbers whose properties approximate the properties of sequences of random numbers.

A lot's already been written here and on other sites why generating a truly random sequence of numbers is hard for machines, see for example Is /dev/random considered truly random?, How can I generate truly (not pseudo) random numbers with C#? and so on.

From Can a computer generate a truly random number? | MIT School of Engineering:

“One thing that traditional computer systems aren’t good at is coin flipping” [...]

There are devices that generate numbers that claim to be truly random. They rely on unpredictable processes like thermal or atmospheric noise rather than human-defined patterns.

Community
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CodeCaster
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  • hm interesting that some computer systems use thermal or atmospheric noise to create random numbers, still in my originally question what we define as "random" and computers is totally different, thanks for the answer! – Zee_K Nov 09 '14 at 12:07
  • I explain in my answer that no, computers generally aren't quite able to generate truly random sequences. Feel free to click the links to learn more. :) – CodeCaster Nov 09 '14 at 12:10
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In programming we often use term 'psuedorandom' because any random number which can be generated by program is based on some logic. Program cannot generate number on its own without any logic.

Deepankar Singh
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So by that logic humans cant generate random numbers either......

It all depends on how you want to argue. If you want to argue for the sake of arguing of coarse they cant. But if you want to just say can we 100% accurately guess the next number they will choose. We cant...thus its random

user2864830
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  • Yes but we can try and if we get all variables as listed in the answer, then we can predict the next number thus it is no longer "random" it is interesting though what others think and define random as. – Zee_K Nov 09 '14 at 12:28
  • "by that logic humans cant generate random numbers either", well of course. Humans cannot generate true random numbers. In the end, humans will show bias to certain numbers. See http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/bul/77/1/65/ – pyrocumulus Nov 09 '14 at 13:08
  • We can try anything, but how probable is it. Is it perhaps more probable that the whole argument started because of the whole 0 or 1 is not a 50/50 since 0.0-.50 is heads and .51- 1.5 is tales due to rounding. Which is why coin tosses aren't as accurate(unless you compensate for the difference). At least so i've heard it explained but i was half asleep during the explanation. I just think the whole argument is silly unless you're going to define what random is. – user2864830 Nov 10 '14 at 02:15