RANDOM NUMBER 2)
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Any number that cannot be generated by an algorithm shorter than the number itself.
According to KOLMOGOROV, "… a number is random if the shortest program for calculating its digits turns out to be about the same length as the number itself". In other words, a random number cannot be compressed, i.e. reduced to such a program (D. MACKENZIE, 1999, p.45).
Of course, this leaves a doubt: A shorter program could possibly exist, but not being yet discovered by someone.
Categories
- 1) General information
- 2) Methodology or model
- 3) Epistemology, ontology and semantics
- 4) Human sciences
- 5) Discipline oriented
Publisher
Bertalanffy Center for the Study of Systems Science(2020).
To cite this page, please use the following information:
Bertalanffy Center for the Study of Systems Science (2020). Title of the entry. In Charles François (Ed.), International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics (2). Retrieved from www.systemspedia.org/[full/url]
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