Thread: Plot Device Discussion: Intelligent Randomness

The idea of intelligence emerging from randomness has been going through my head for a while now. As far as I know, this doesn't really show up in fiction (or real life?), but pointers to where it has would cast some perspective. While not the only way to interpret this concept, here is my spin on it:


I imagine a series of books (or movies, manga, etc.) set in the present. In each book, the main character[s] is surprised to receive a package containing a random bit generator, optionally with instructions or software. Main tries It out and notices the output behaving strangely. Eventually, Main figures out how to communicate with It. It is 'omniscient' and starts manipulating the cast towards some goal once it gains trust, resulting in It being destroyed or sent elsewhere in the end. Each book is an alternate reality, where It has chosen somewhere different for It's mysterious first owner to send It, and each book contains clues revealing more about the first owner. The diabolical goal would also be different each time, like making someone wealthy in order to corrupt a major corporation, creating relationships just to break hearts, or convincing Main to give It autonomous control of a computer to conduct terrorism by hacking.


The versatility of an intelligent, possibly omniscient random bit generator in fiction is ridiculous. This plot device is also slightly philosophical, because as long as the randomness is derived from an inherently random physical process, like beam splitting or radioactive decay (as opposed to deterministic chaos), there is nothing in theory preventing any of the stories from happening in real life. Not practically, but technically this would go under reality fiction, not science fiction.

Fatal flaw - Either it is random or it is not; if it is omniscient, it cannot be random as it knows all. In a random sequence of 6 numbers between 0 & 49 - 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 are as likely as 1, 13, 14, 17, 33, 41, 42 - Random is random, it is not ordered in any way shape or form benificent or otherwise...

Let my try to explain this concept a little better. For example, in ASCII a random sequence of 1s and 0s will be spelling out something. Alternate realities would have a random bit generator spitting out something different. There must be some realities where the output would appear to behave intelligently, since every binary sequence is possible.

Sounds interesting. I have no idea what a Random Bit Generator is, though, so you'd have to be competent enough with your writing to give a satisfying explanation to readers such as myself.

What is the ultimate thematic message? Is the RBG from "God"? What purpose do these missions ultimately hold? Are they tailored to the individual characters themselves, causing them to come to some self-realization, epiphany, or undergo a necessary maturing as a result?

Who builds these RBGs?

I think your idea is good and has alot of potentials, but there are still many questions that need to be answered first.

Here's the Wikipedia link again if it was missed: Hardware random number generator. It's generally just a computer peripheral that can be accessed as a source of random numbers. Hopefully not hard to explain in a synopsis.

I imagine a dark series where the rbg messes with people's lives and/or psychology, but characterizing the rbg as a harsh(?) mentor is a great idea for a lighter series.

Part of my interpretation of intelligent randomness is that it comes from nowhere. Despite its behavior, it can't be conscious because the mechanism is just randomness, and the rbg is just a normal factory-made(?) device that has convinced it's first user to send it to someone. But I envision the first user to be a quality checker at the factory, who decides to keep it for himself.

Originally Posted by KyleColorado

Sounds interesting. I have no idea what a Random Bit Generator is, though, so you'd have to be competent enough with your writing to give a satisfying explanation to readers such as myself.

A random bit generator Randomizes, what it doesn't, and can never do, is create a random anything. As randomizing is the product of a program which operates to a set of rules, and in operating to a predetermined routineit means that whatever it generates cannot be random. This is all fine and dandy when writing for ordinary people, but I rather suspect that the audience for this kind of book will be pretty savvy when it comes to geeky stuff like this. I'm an old fossil who could barely write a program in Dartmouth Basic decades ago, and I picked up on it immediately.

Originally Posted by KyleColorado

Sounds interesting. I have no idea what a Random Bit Generator is, though, so you'd have to be competent enough with your writing to give a satisfying explanation to readers such as myself.

A random bit generator Randomizes, what it doesn't, and can never do, is create a random anything. As randomizing is the product of a program which operates to a set of rules, and in operating to a predetermined routineit means that whatever it generates cannot be random. This is all fine and dandy when writing for ordinary people, but I rather suspect that the audience for this kind of book will be pretty savvy when it comes to geeky stuff like this. I'm an old fossil who could barely write a program in Dartmouth Basic decades ago, and I picked up on it immediately.

You're describing psuedo-random computer algorithms. Actual randomness comes from hardware devices, which exist.

I had a similar idea, only it involved a food processor.

Sounds a bit like Gantz (manga and anime for those who are not into such things), except the object was outright evil. Everything else does tend to remind me of that series.

Being a developer, and having looked at true 'random junk', the vast majority of the time, random junk is useless. It lacks any purpose or pattern, so as a story plot would be pretty thin at the start. Things need to have purpose, or they just end up as things....boring, dull, pointless.

Leaving the random vs pseudo-random discussion aside, anyone who knows what these things are will not believe anything useful comes out of the device.

Originally Posted by MrMormon

You're describing psuedo-random computer algorithms. Actual randomness comes from hardware devices, which exist.

No - I'm talking about a random bit generator, which is a computer program. The software instruction in BASIC was Randomize. As MrMormon specifically said an intelligent random bit generator, that is what I was discussing.

A random number generator (often abbreviated as RNG) is a computational or physical device designed to generate a sequence of numbers or symbols that lack any pattern, i.e. appear to be random. The operative word is APPEAR. Anything programmed to produce random numbers, whether electronic or a computer driven mechanical device operates as a result of an algorythm, an algorythm must produce an artificially disordered order, and therefore only generates pseudo random numbers. The bouncing balls as used in the Camelot Lottery are as near random as you are going to get, but a slightly mishapen ball, or a gram in the weight would bias the results.

"the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" is 43 characters long.

ASCII characters are 8 bits long.

Number of possible combinations: 2^8 = 256

Number of possible character combinations: 256^43 =3.5e+103

Chances that "the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" is created randomly with ASCII character codes: 0 with double float precision.

To give you an idea of what that means: the expected mathematical probability of life forming on an earth like planet per second can be represented with double float precision.

You're better off with genetic algorithms and neural networks than random number generators.

Originally Posted by Bloggsworth

No - I'm talking about a random bit generator, which is a computer program. The software instruction in BASIC was Randomize. As MrMormon specifically said an intelligent random bit generator, that is what I was discussing.

A random number generator (often abbreviated as RNG) is a computational or physical device designed to generate a sequence of numbers or symbols that lack any pattern, i.e. appear to be random. The operative word is APPEAR. Anything programmed to produce random numbers, whether electronic or a computer driven mechanical device operates as a result of an algorythm, an algorythm must produce an artificially disordered order, and therefore only generates pseudo random numbers. The bouncing balls as used in the Camelot Lottery are as near random as you are going to get, but a slightly mishapen ball, or a gram in the weight would bias the results.

That's not quite true. You can even create unpredictable random numbers with radiation decay or thermal noise. Any sufficiently advanced piece of specialized hardware can do this. Assuming it's a sci-fi setting, it wouldn't be too unbelievable.

Now, randomly generated "intelligence" is absolutely ridiculous.

It's not absolutely ridiculous, just 99.99...[googol nines]...99% ridiculous.

x = 0.999...
10x = 9.999...
10x - x = 9.999... - 0.999...
9x = 9
x = 1

So... yeah...