Re: Truly Random Numbers On A Quantum Computer??

Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> writes:

On Fri, 28 Mar 2025 21:16:29 -0000 (UTC), I wrote:
>

The definition of “randomness” is “you don’t know what’s coming next”.
How do you prove you don’t know something? You can’t. There are various
statistical tests for randomness, but remember that a suitably encrypted
message can pass every one of them, and a person who knows the message
knows that the bitstream is not truly random.

>
Here’s an even simpler proof, by reductio ad absurdum.
>
Suppose you have a sequence of numbers which is provably random. Simply
pregenerate a large bunch of numbers according to that sequence, and store
them. Then supply them one by one to another party. The other party
doesn’t know what’s coming next, but you do. Therefore they are not random
to you.
>
Which contradicts the original assumption of provable randomness. QED.

I think your definition of randomness is wrong. If the sequence can be
repeated by anyone, then it is pseudo random, not random.

Random is without a predictable pattern or plan.