Randomness
From Maze
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What is intriguing about Dreiser's account is that it is only when Hurstwood's good fortune wavers that his interest in the game grows, and he begins to enjoy it. Losing a few hands makes a winning streak all that much more thrilling. "A series of lucky rolls gives me more pleasure than a man who does not gamble can have over a period of several years," Edouard Gourdon stated in one sexually-charged extract in the ''Arcades Project''. "These joys," he continued, "vivid and scorching as lightning, are too rapid-fire to become distasteful, and too diverse to become boring. I live a hundred lives in one" (498 [O4a]). | What is intriguing about Dreiser's account is that it is only when Hurstwood's good fortune wavers that his interest in the game grows, and he begins to enjoy it. Losing a few hands makes a winning streak all that much more thrilling. "A series of lucky rolls gives me more pleasure than a man who does not gamble can have over a period of several years," Edouard Gourdon stated in one sexually-charged extract in the ''Arcades Project''. "These joys," he continued, "vivid and scorching as lightning, are too rapid-fire to become distasteful, and too diverse to become boring. I live a hundred lives in one" (498 [O4a]). | ||
| − | Unlike the early, purely malevolent associations of randomess described in the beginning of this chapter, randomness here involves the masochistic interplay between pleasure and pain. As well, there is a monumental compression of time: a hundred lives in one. Anatole France calls gambling "the art of producing in a second the changes that Destiny ordinarily effects only in the course of many hours or even many years" (498 [O4A]). Benjamin himself declares that "the greater the component of chance in a game, the more speedily it elapses" (512 [O12a,2]). In other words, time accelerates during the high stakes game of chance. Waiting, boredom, monotony -- these frustrations disappear as "time spills from his [the gambler's] every pore" (107 [D3,4]). | + | Unlike the early, purely malevolent associations of randomness described in the beginning of this chapter, randomness here involves the masochistic interplay between pleasure and pain. There is also a monumental compression of time: a hundred lives in one. Anatole France calls gambling "the art of producing in a second the changes that Destiny ordinarily effects only in the course of many hours or even many years" (498 [O4A]). Benjamin himself declares that "the greater the component of chance in a game, the more speedily it elapses" (512 [O12a,2]). In other words, time accelerates during the high stakes game of chance. Waiting, boredom, monotony -- these frustrations disappear as "time spills from his [the gambler's] every pore" (107 [D3,4]). |
Perhaps Benjamin describes games of chance with a bit more whimsy than is useful for critical discussion of the role of randomness in culture. Although words like randomness, chance, and uncertainty may be casually interchanged, not all forms of chance are actually the same. To highlight distinctions between various forms of chance, consider the anthropologist Thomas Malaby's account of gambling in a small Greek city on the island of Crete -- an appropriate site of exploration, given ''alea'''s Greek etymology. Malaby's goal is to use gambling as a "lens through which to explore how social actors confront uncertainty in…key areas of their lives" (7). How do people account for the unaccountable? How do we deal with the unpredictable? And what are the sources of indeterminacy in our lives? | Perhaps Benjamin describes games of chance with a bit more whimsy than is useful for critical discussion of the role of randomness in culture. Although words like randomness, chance, and uncertainty may be casually interchanged, not all forms of chance are actually the same. To highlight distinctions between various forms of chance, consider the anthropologist Thomas Malaby's account of gambling in a small Greek city on the island of Crete -- an appropriate site of exploration, given ''alea'''s Greek etymology. Malaby's goal is to use gambling as a "lens through which to explore how social actors confront uncertainty in…key areas of their lives" (7). How do people account for the unaccountable? How do we deal with the unpredictable? And what are the sources of indeterminacy in our lives? | ||
| − | Malaby presents a useful framework for understanding indeterminacy, based on four categories. The first category is ''formal indeterminacy'', what we commonly refer to as chance. This is any form of random allotment, which often can be understood and predicted through statistical methods. Malaby argues that the ascendancy of statistical thinking in the social sciences has skewed our conception of indeterminacy in gambling (in particular) and in our lives (in general) so much that formal indeterminacy has become a stand-in for other types of indeterminacies. The second category is ''social indeterminacy'', which is the impossibility of knowing or understanding someone else's point of view or intentions. A bluff is a type of social indeterminacy. The third category is ''performative indeterminacy'', that is, the unreliability of one's own or of another's actions, say a fumble in football game or misreading the information in plain view on a chess board. Finally, the fourth category described by Malaby is ''cosmological indeterminacy,'' which refers to skepticism about the fairness and legitimacy of the rules of the game in the first place at a local, institutional, or cosmological level. Suspicion that a game is "rigged," for example, is concern about cosmological indeterminacy (15-17). | + | Malaby presents a useful framework for understanding indeterminacy, based on four categories. The first category is ''formal indeterminacy'', what we commonly refer to as chance. This is any form of random allotment, which often can be understood and predicted through statistical methods. Malaby argues that the ascendancy of statistical thinking in the social sciences has skewed our conception of indeterminacy in gambling (in particular) and in our lives (in general) so much that formal indeterminacy has become a stand-in for other types of indeterminacies. The second category is ''social indeterminacy'', the impossibility of knowing or understanding someone else's point of view or intentions. A bluff is a type of social indeterminacy. The third category is ''performative indeterminacy'', that is, the unreliability of one's own or of another's actions, say a fumble in football game or misreading the information in plain view on a chess board. Finally, the fourth category Malaby describes, ''cosmological indeterminacy,'' refers to skepticism about the fairness and legitimacy of the rules of the game in the first place at a local, institutional, or cosmological level. Suspicion that a game is rigged, for example, is concern about cosmological indeterminacy (15-17). |
| − | The privileging of the stochastic principles of formal determinacy means that players, scholars, and even programmers dismiss social and performative indeterminacies altogether. In the case of 10 PRINT, thinking about social indeterminacy can reveal several new layers of randomness, such as the idiosyncratic line numbers in the 1982 and 1984 versions of the program. Likewise, understanding performative indeterminacies may account for the textual variants of the program, for example, the version that appeared in ''Commodore Free'' that in fact will not execute as printed. | + | Privileging of the stochastic principles of formal determinacy means that players, scholars, and even programmers dismiss social and performative indeterminacies altogether. In the case of 10 PRINT, thinking about social indeterminacy can reveal several new layers of randomness, such as the idiosyncratic line numbers in the 1982 and 1984 versions of the program. Likewise, understanding performative indeterminacies may account for the textual variants of the program, for example, the version that appeared in ''Commodore Free'' that in fact will not execute as printed. |
Cosmological indeterminacy is perhaps the most difficult form of indeterminacy to apply to 10 PRINT. The rise of the scientific method can be seen as one enduring struggle to impose a more rational view upon the world, abolishing cosmological indeterminacy. From Aristotle to Galileo to Newton, classical mechanics defined the universe as an organized system without random actions. Even Einstein declared that "God does not play dice with the universe." Yet, as a closer examination of randomness on the Commodore 64 will reveal, there is evidence that randomness on the Commodore 64 -- and indeed, on any computer -- is fundamentally "rigged" in a way that echoes Malaby's idea of cosmological indeterminacy. Randomness and chance operations are so necessary to daily life, well beyond the realm of games, that randomness itself must be fixed, repeatable and knowable. | Cosmological indeterminacy is perhaps the most difficult form of indeterminacy to apply to 10 PRINT. The rise of the scientific method can be seen as one enduring struggle to impose a more rational view upon the world, abolishing cosmological indeterminacy. From Aristotle to Galileo to Newton, classical mechanics defined the universe as an organized system without random actions. Even Einstein declared that "God does not play dice with the universe." Yet, as a closer examination of randomness on the Commodore 64 will reveal, there is evidence that randomness on the Commodore 64 -- and indeed, on any computer -- is fundamentally "rigged" in a way that echoes Malaby's idea of cosmological indeterminacy. Randomness and chance operations are so necessary to daily life, well beyond the realm of games, that randomness itself must be fixed, repeatable and knowable. | ||
