Is there such a thing as randomness, or do things just seem to be random?

Question

Does it just mean that the thing is too complex for us to see it's underlying causes?

Answer 1

If things are random then noone would have to take responsibility for their own actions and people like to think it's random or "fate" so they never have to control their own life and can blame the universe or others.

"Nothing is random" everything in life has a ripple effect, we all just need to open our eyes a little wider and take responsibility for our own lives and the way we live them.

Answer 2

There is indeed no randomness in the inanimate universe. However, the exercise of free will by the living beings create the illusion of randomness. When free will is exercised, even the particular person or being often does not quite fully realise or understand the reason or causes behind the choice ....... naturally the rest of us could hardly do better than that. You are thus absolutely right in saying that what seems to be random is merely on account of the lack of knowledge of the underlying causes.

So far so good..... but what about the beginning of it all where by the very definition of the beginning, there could be no causative factor? And what about the end of it all which happens without causing anything else to follow?

Answer 3

If the laws of physics hold true for philosophy then no. Nothing is random. Even a "random act of kindness" is not random. The person showing that kindness had to think of doing it even though they may not have planned it out or picked the recipient before hand. The perception of randomness is pretty much as you stated it. The underlying cause of the action may not be known or at least not perceived so it seems random. But, it may not be all that complex to figure out the underlying cause if you want to take the time & effort.

Answer 4

When Albert Einstein said ‘God does not play dice’, he meant that there is an order in this universe, and that everything happens for a humanly understandable reason. This is the principle that the entire human knowledge is based upon. But the very knowledge that is orderly takes us into the heart of disorder and uncertainty, beyond the realms of certainly and the possibility to logically encapsulate the theory of everything in the universe. As according to quantum theory, an uncertainty lurks at the heart of each atom in the universe, and at a subatomic level the Newtonian laws of physics fail to apply, and that nothing can be said with any certainty that how a subatomic particle will behave in a single moment, or where it will be the next.

The certainty that we observe and enjoy in our normal life experiences, without which life simply would not have been possible, is all but arbitrary. The essential reality of anything cannot be observed or defined. We define things only as approximations and with respect to other things in existence. Or entire knowledge is relative, and not absolute. Everything in the universe contains all other things. This is the world metaphysics where a single thing can be anything or many things at the same time – a world of constant transformations and limitless possible variations. The Moon for example is an object of inquiry for a scientist but it is a source of inspiration for a poet. A seed has a hidden tree inside that would come forth and all future trees that would thereupon be produced. All thing would look limitlessly different when viewed a limitless number of possible vantage point in space. This limitlessness is then limitless in the variations in time.

In all this what seemingly look random and disjointed, all we can have is our opinion and our unique standpoint in life. We can know that there is Truth, Justice and Beauty in life, but what does that mean. Life does not assume any meaning for us until we realise all things in life from our own standpoint in our own way. How can we know that there is love in the world unless we make it real by loving someone, or by being loved by someone? We are the order in this chaos, or we are the eyes that can see order in this apparently random existence.

Answer 5

Everything that counts is random. Humans impose order in their activities so that actions, objects and abstract concepts might be categorised for ease of reference. The crux of the matter is that we love to show others just how clever we are, and only by imposing order can we assemble enough information in one place to do this. Often when somebody comes out with a particularly obscure piece of information the reaction is "How the **** do you know that?" rather than "What an interesting fact." Thus it becomes obvious that when we marvel at what we know, we are actually admiring our own organizational skills.

Back to the question in hand... Utilising classical mechanics, any three-body system will develop unpredictable, chaotic and random motion. Given that this is a very simple example involving three bodies and motion, do you really think that anything in the universe is anything but random? Yes, it is absolutely complex, and it is because of this that we seek to impose order so that we may develop a working (if not true) understanding...

Answer 6

there isn't any such element as organic randomness. What we evaluate randomness isn't something more effective than Causality. The confluence of aspects ensuing in a particular result. the reason the time period randomness exists is to handle those causality events that are too complicated for us to foretell both because of our lack of ability to attraction to close each and each and every of the elements in contact or from an lack of information of particular aspects.

Answer 7

Things are random because they aren't random. Everything in the universe is already written. In the universe all we can do is live out what is already written. Still what is written is so vast that we can only hope to live a small part of the that infinite script. Thus, it seems random because we write our own story out of the infinite but it isn't random because even the infinite only covers so much. Nothingness realizing its own potential.

Answer 8

Things that happen in no predictable pattern can be said to be random.

So some things may be at random & some things may seem to be random.

Some things that to some may seem to have been random may have been predictable by others.

We can predict that lightning will strike some areas more than others (Towers & tall buildings) but it is random when they will strike.

Answer 9

If I vote for "seeming randomness," does that make me a Platonist? Maybe I should give the principle of sufficient reason another whirl...

valley_storm, a purely determined universe is often cited antimonally to the ability "to have chosen otherwise" -- free will.

Answer 10

The thing about radomness is that persistently random things eventually make a pattern and are therefore no longer random