Talk:Randomness

From Maze

Notes on Randomness from Nick, Noah, Mark and Patsy 5/7/2011

points getting buried
chronological order 
pre-reqs get naturally discussed

nick: distinction b/t pseudorandomness, humanists have weak idea.
needed to replicate studies
describe case where is pseudo good-enough not good-enough
nick: not moving first, but first fill-in writing in order to see connections
two additional means of generating randomness
---how is the c64 compared to other machines randomness?  
---is c64 is especially good at randomizing...   is this an exemplary c64 program?
   (that would help circulate...   does the c64 platform) 
   (did someone discover, three years after released, no, cuz in prg ref guide)

RND is in kernal, commodore, not microsoft, basic invokes something in the platform.
1st, get stuff out

implications: 
---burning question: why do computers produce random numbers!!!
(-games, +computation)

* use SID, reference
* use ASM example, for numbers done out.

typology of randomness

(arithmetic approximations - which are they good for)

beginning with randomness - faciliating ppl to make intelligent discussion.
advantage of different types of randomness

different seeds.  

lead to mersenne twister

The text formerly in "Randomness and Aesthetics Before Computing" was "a mix of notes and paragraphs and not draft yet." It's been moved to the Randomness in the Arts notes section.

- Another is the board used by compositors to keep type as pages are made up. what exactly is this? like something a comic book artist or newspaper layout person might use? Check http://libraries.mit.edu/get/oed -NM

- laying waste. does that mean shooting a country with missiles from the air or pooping? srsly! http://www.thefreedictionary.com/laying+waste -NM wow, my own link to the dictionary! thank you, but it still sounds odd here, perhaps because laying waste usually works with an indirect or direct object. | I changed that phrase to "devastation." I don't clearly understand why you're reading the phrase as "pooping," and neither does the dictionary, although I know that "waste" can be excrement etc. Anyway, it's easy to use a synonymous word/phrase there. -NM

- found an interesting early "pop" book on game theory that includes a random number table at the end: The Compleat Strategyst http://www.rand.org/pubs/commercial_books/CB113-1.html

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Note for citation, use format (Montfort 2009, p. 24)

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Notes from Skype 2 February 2011: - Historical factors and context from which "random" emerged. Certain things in time. - The meanings of what "random" means in computing vs common use in language. What does the concept of randomness mean to different people? People in computing vs. the general public.

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Note from Noah: I have edited the first half of the randomness_in_the_arts, combined it with a few paragraphs about random music and pasted them here.

Note from Casey: I haven't put my notes into prose yet, but I have basic material here and more forthcoming here Randomness_in_the_Arts

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After spending some hours on researching Truchet, I don't think his work fits in Random. The work he did on tiling is extraordinary and entirely relevant to 10 Print, but I can't find a single instance where Truchet himself used random values. If we move forward with a section about "grids" then I think he should go there. The article "The Tiling Patterns of Sebastien Truchet and the Topology of Structural Hierarchy" published in Leonardo has a translation of Truchet's original document.

Note from Mark: I agree with the Truchet. We were initially going to use him in the maze chapter, but it didn't fit there either. The Grids or Regularity chapter might be a good place. I've been reading up on him as well; it'll be interesting to see how our readings overlap. --MarkSample 23:56, 30 March 2011 (UTC)

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We don't have a natural place in this document yet for the use of random values in the sciences. I've started to come across names, but haven't done any research yet: Charles Sanders Peirce, Ronald Fisher, (Frank Yates),

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10 Print Random Chapter Notes

• Not satisfied with the opening paragraph
• Don’t quite get the opening lines of the etymology section. “chance is hap”? Though it might be useful to talk about the real root of “chance” -- late Latin cadentia falling
• The origins of “random” are quite different from the computional meaning of randomness, which is more along the lines of “chance” (versus impetuousness). Possibly play up this distinction.
• After the the discussion of Knuth and SAGA II is where the chapter’s authorial tone tapers off, switching to informal 2nd person, notes, etc.

Larger organizational questions: I wonder if the semi-chronological structure (randomness pre-computing, randomness with computing) obscures some of the salient points we want to make about aesthetic design. --MarkSample 17:19, 7 May 2011 (UTC)