CoachAlan

I have an ulterior motive for asking this question, but the motive is not important here. What is important is this: If a system is not determinstic, is it necessarily random? And if a system is not random, is it necessarily determinstic?

I know that there is chaos, but that's really determinism that gives the illusion of randomness.

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Tachion

Quantum physics holds that there are completely random events
such as radioactive decay. For everyday occurrences random events can be approximated to almost certainty with statistics using the correspondence principle.

Note: Eistein and others have problems with Quantum physics, hense his famous quote, God does not play dice with the universe.

A miracle such as the resurrection of Jesus (if true?) is considered non-deterministic as it has no natural cause.

Chaos , randomness - even in Quantum mechanics may be more a reflection of our lack of understanding than reality.

rlbond86

I would define a system that is random as a system which, when repeatedly subjected to identical circumstances, behaves differently in each trial.

Thus the other case would be deterministic systems.

Thus I would say, no.

asaris

So, as far as I understand it, the question is: Given that we know of two categories of events, uncaused and determined, is there a third category? I think there might be, depending in what you mean by determined. If you simply mean 'has a cause' then there's not -- everything either has a cause or does not have a cause. If you mean a cause distinct from itself, then it's probably a bad assumption to assume everything has a cause outside of itself.

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AngelicVampire

In computer science yes, a random system does what it says on the box (ideally), a deterministic system is in a defined state for any given time and series of inputs, a non-deterministic system could potentially be in any of multiple states for a given time and a series of inputs.

CoachAlan

Thanks for the input, all. Your assistance has been valuable. I suppose the real question, then, is whether there is any such thing as "random." I tend to subscribe to Tachion's view that the appearance of randomness has more to do with our lack of understanding than anything else.

__________________
"If I cannot smoke cigars in heaven, I shall not go!"
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