[erlang-questions] All possible internal states of Erlang/OTP random module are practically computable

Ian hobson42@REDACTED
Tue Dec 23 21:23:50 CET 2014


Hi All,

On 23/12/2014 14:56, Jesper Louis Andersen wrote:
> For a process to "look random", it must pass all of these tests, as we 
> otherwise can claim the generated sequence to be less random than a 
> (truly) random process.
This is not true, and disfigures Jesper's otherwise excellent post.

Its a subtle point but, a truly random sequence can be expected to fail 
5% of randomness tests at 95% significance, and 1% at 99% significance.

Different sequences will fail different sets of tests.

Any sequence that passes all the tests is (with high confidence) not 
random, but fudged to pass the tests.

Regards

Ian

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Ian Hobson
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