[2012-Jul-13] Pseudorandom

rand · Post by **rand** » Mon Jul 16, 2012 4:07 am

The ironic thing about this comic is that the people with the RNGs in their heads could have had pseudo-random number generators (say the C programming language's RNG) in there and no one would be able to tell the difference.

I was hoping this would make it into the secret panel:

"I swear, I'm deterministic! The chips are just cheap Chinese knockoffs spitting out digits of pi, with noise thrown in from the Dow Jones Industrial Average!"

(Possible addition: "It wasn't my choice, they were half the price!")

Post by **DonRetrasado** » Mon Jul 16, 2012 4:30 am

not really that funny, man

Salacious Schoolmate · Mon Jul 16, 2012 11:07 am

Nor is it ironic.

Bob · Post by **Bob** » Mon Jul 16, 2012 1:43 pm

Someone is going to have to explain to me how "accessing quantum randomness" somehow translates into giving someone free will.

Salacious Schoolmate · Mon Jul 16, 2012 4:51 pm

First we'd need a definition of free will.

I guess we'd go from there.

Sahan · Post by **Sahan** » Mon Jul 16, 2012 6:13 pm

Isn't it that movie with a killer whale who jumps over that boy's head to escape into the sea?

Salacious Schoolmate · Mon Jul 16, 2012 6:30 pm

I never saw it, I only read the novelisation. And what a novelisation!

ChaoticBrain · Post by **ChaoticBrain** » Mon Jul 16, 2012 8:04 pm

Salacious Schoolmate wrote:I never saw it, I only read the novelisation. And what a novelisation!

But how can you have your Free Willy without Michael Jackson?

Salacious Schoolmate · Mon Jul 16, 2012 8:35 pm

Came with a cassette tape

Mr. Bleh · Post by **Mr. Bleh** » Tue Jul 17, 2012 7:55 pm

I guess RNGs could be a robot's arbitrary decisions.
Don't see any irony in it though, think rand is just over-thinking things.

Sahan · Post by **Sahan** » Wed Jul 18, 2012 7:36 am

Dude, we were talking about Free Willy here. You can't just derail the topic thread like that!

Salacious Schoolmate · Wed Jul 18, 2012 10:51 am

What would the porn parody of free willy be called?

Destructicus · Post by **Destructicus** » Wed Jul 18, 2012 2:01 pm

http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db ... 2672#comic

How is non-deterministic behavior (whose probability is however determinable) "free will"? Your will is still "determined" by these quantum-mechanical phenomena.

Sahan · Post by **Sahan** » Wed Jul 18, 2012 2:12 pm

Willy's Release?

GUTCHUCKER · Post by **GUTCHUCKER** » Wed Jul 18, 2012 2:23 pm

How is SHUT UP?
I mean um, this thread dude
http://www.smbc-comics.com/smbcforum/vi ... 58#p139958

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[2012-Jul-13] Pseudorandom

[2012-Jul-13] Pseudorandom

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Comic 2672

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