Randomness

Since chance is happenstance, hap, the root of happy, it would seem likely that randomness, a type of chance, might have a happy etymology. But this is not so. In centuries past, before the philosophers and mathematicians in the Age of Enlightenment sought to rationalize even chance, randomness was a nightmare. Likely ancestors of the word "random" are found in Anglo-Norman, Old French, and Middle French and include ''randoun, raundun, raundoun, randon, randun,'' and ''rendon'' -- words signifying speed, impulsiveness, and violence. These early forms are found beginning around the 12th century and probably derive from ''randir,'' to run fast or gallop. Bumper stickers implore drivers to "practice random acts of kindness," but only because people in our culture fear random acts of violence so much that another phrase has become so ingrained that it can be punned upon -- and at a deeper level, perhaps, because the speed and violence of other vehicles are to be feared. While today it might be harmless to encounter "a random" sitting in the computer lab exploring a system at random, a "random encounter" centuries ago was more likely to resemble a random encounter in ''Dungeons & Dragons,'' a figure on horseback hurtling through a village, intent on death and destruction.

Since chance is happenstance, hap, the root of happy, it would seem likely that randomness, a type of chance, might have a happy etymology. But this is not so. In centuries past, before the philosophers and mathematicians in the Age of Enlightenment sought to rationalize even chance, randomness was a nightmare. Likely ancestors of the word "random" are found in Anglo-Norman, Old French, and Middle French and include ''randoun, raundun, raundoun, randon, randun,'' and ''rendon'' -- words signifying speed, impulsiveness, and violence. These early forms are found beginning around the 12th century and probably derive from ''randir,'' to run fast or gallop. Bumper stickers implore drivers to "practice random acts of kindness," but only because people in our culture fear random acts of violence so much that another phrase has become so ingrained that it can be punned upon -- and at a deeper level, perhaps, because the speed and violence of other vehicles are to be feared. While today it might be harmless to encounter "a random" sitting in the computer lab exploring a system at random, a "random encounter" centuries ago was more likely to resemble a random encounter in ''Dungeons & Dragons,'' a figure on horseback hurtling through a village, intent on death and destruction.

Life itself is full of randomness and the inexplicable, and it is no small wonder that children and adults alike incorporate chance into their daily lives, as if to tame it. Games of chance are one of the four fundamental categories of games that all humans play, argued the French cultural historian Roger Caillois. Whereas ''agon'' are games dependent upon skill, ''mimicry'' are games of imagination, ''ilinx'' are games causing disorder and loss of control, ''alea'' are games of chance. Taken from the Latin name for dice games, ''alea'' "negates work, patience, experience, and qualifications" (17). When a player loses a game of chance, it is as if the gods themselves have cursed him or her. But when a player wins a game of chance, he or she has been blessed by the fates. Indeed, the roll of a die or toss of a coin have long foretold the fortunes of men, though gambling dens and casino halls have determined more futures than soothsayers and prophets. The rise of the scientific method can be seen as one enduring struggle to impose a more rational -- and predictable -- view upon the world. From Aristotle to Galileo to Newton, classical mechanics defined the universe as an organized system without random actions. Although Einstein may have declared that "God does not play dice with the universe," probability and statistics have been extremely important to our understanding of the world from the 20th century on, and have brought randomness into our basic scientific understanding of the world. From chaos theory and quantum mechanics through evolutionary biology and the simulation of dynamic systems, randomness may itself be modeled and incorporated into systems, but it can no longer be excluded from the scientific perspective on the world.

Life itself is full of randomness and the inexplicable, and it is no small wonder that children and adults alike incorporate chance into their daily lives, as if to tame it. Games of chance are one of the four fundamental categories of games that all humans play, argued the French cultural historian Roger Caillois. Whereas ''agon'' are games dependent upon skill, ''mimicry'' are games of imagination, ''ilinx'' are games causing disorder and loss of control, ''alea'' are games of chance. Taken from the Latin name for dice games, ''alea'' "negates work, patience, experience, and qualifications" (17). When a player loses a game of chance, it is as if the gods themselves have cursed him or her. But when a player wins a game of chance, he or she has been blessed by the fates. Indeed, the roll of a die or toss of a coin have long foretold the fortunes of men, though gambling dens and casino halls have determined more futures than soothsayers and prophets. The rise of the scientific method can be seen as one enduring struggle to impose a more rational -- and predictable -- view upon the world. From Aristotle to Galileo to Newton, classical mechanics defined the universe as an organized system without random actions. Although Einstein may have declared that "God does not play dice with the universe," probability and statistics have been extremely important to our understanding of the world from the 20th century on, and have brought randomness into our basic scientific understanding of the world. From chaos theory and quantum mechanics through evolutionary biology and the simulation of dynamic systems, randomness may itself be modeled and incorporated into systems, but it can no longer be excluded from the scientific perspective on the world.