Here’s a fun thought experiment: can we spot the human in a room full of randomness? 🧠
Imagine two people in separate rooms, each controlling a light bulb. One flips a coin to decide when to switch it on or off, embracing true randomness. The other tries to act “randomly” based on intuition. Could we figure out who’s the human just by watching the patterns?
Simulating True Randomness
To explore this, I ran a simulation of 10 million coin flips, grouping them into 5-bit sequences (like 00000 to 11111). With 32 possible combinations, each sequence ideally appears about 62,500 times. Interestingly, the counts were close to this target, showing “frequency stability” — a hallmark of true randomness over time.
Humans, on the other hand, often introduce subconscious patterns, disrupting this balance. It’s fascinating how intuition strays from actual randomness!
The Human Factor
When we try to be random, we unconsciously:
- Avoid repeating patterns (even though repetition is natural in true randomness)
- Create subtle rhythms and preferences
- Overthink what “feels” random
This makes human-generated sequences surprisingly detectable when analyzed statistically.
Until next time, stay random! 🎲