A well written algorithm for generating random behavior should be convincing no matter how the starting parameters are arranged.

True. Not only should they be convincing (i.e. have a suitable distribution) but the sequences shouldn't be guessable either.

Your assertion that "computers are inherently deterministic" is mostly true from our normal perspective (otherwise they wouldn't be very useful.) The assertion leaves little hope, however, that computers can generate a random sequence that doesn't suffer from guessability. Fortunately, there is more to the story. Some operating systems do provide a mechanism for generating random numbers from input which is, in practice, impossible to reproduce or guess. This is done by collecting data from hardware events such as network device and disk interrupt latencies and then generating numbers based on the contents of this pool. 

-sauoq
"My two cents aren't worth a dime.";

In reply to Re: Re: String randomness by sauoq
in thread String randomness by Anonymous Monk

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