Thanks, NPR. Nice to know that a principle I've held to be a truism for some time, though long misunderstood by the incurious masses, is now breaking into popular culture. :) Vindicated at last!
Some 2 1/2 years ago now, in this blog, I explained my long-held take on (what appear to be) random events. When I occasionally teach a math class that introduces statistics, I devote part of a lecture to showing that "randomness" is not random at all, but highly deterministic. Random number generators are no such thing, no more random than the lottery numbers or shuffled cards are, either.
Intellectually, we wave our hands, make a "simplifying assumption", and deem them so. And in that same spirit, the students often look at me blankly as if to say "yeah? but, so what?"
Okay, sure. I find this stuff interesting. You don't. I get that. That's why I'm the teacher and you're the blankly-staring mutton-headed student wondering if the old guy will put this useless stuff on the test. But now, with NPR's help, maybe a wider audience than just the sorry victims in my classes will get it.
Then, someday, final victory will be mine, when the phrase "That's soooo random!" drops completely out of the modern vernacular.
(I'm practicing to be crotchety, can you tell?)
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