• Smokeydope@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    The difference boils down to this:

    Psudo random numbers come from non-linear dynamic mathematical equations. You put a random number in and it spits a random number out. It will always give the same series numbers if you begin the equation with the same seed values, but any slight deviation will generate a whole new sequence of numbers.

    The magic of pseudo random numbers comes from fractals, chaos theory, and sensitivity to initial conditions.

    True random numbers come from directly measuring physical phenomenon with sufficient randomness in their mechanics.

    Things like the decay of a radioactive isotope or lava lamp turbulence have built in randomness. There is no seed or way to generate the same sequence of motions or predicting when isotopes decay. These things have randomness and uncertainty built into them thanks to entropy, fractals, chaos theory, and sensitivitiy to initial conditions.