Randomness is essential; actually, we cannot lead our lives without applying randomness from time to time. Throughout humanity of yesteryear to the contemporary one, uncertainty has been the rule of the day with individuals resorting to different sorts of prediction. In the historic ages, people’s fate would be determined by drawing lots. In modern times, the dependability of DNA results rocks the legal systems in passing informed judgments. Gamblers find no peace as they continue to lose or win depending on the upshot of a dice while meteorologists can only predict the probability of rain or sunshine.
Mathematics language does not always fit well in the mainstream human tongues and only the lucky few will understand this jargon. Common person is at odds to explain the occurrence of one situation and not the other. Why will a coin fall on the tail and not on the face? The concept underlying all these certainties and uncertainties is probability theory. Nevertheless, not many people will understand this theory from an intuitive perspective and this throws people into a deeper quagmire. However, nothing; not for now, can explain probability like Deborah Bennett’s book ‘Randomness.’
How comes that from old, through middle to contemporary times, individuals have recurred to probability whilst making conclusions? Is a decision based on stochastic choice fair? It is interesting to find out that anyone stupefied by a chance enigma is only hit by the paradoxes and unreasonable outcomes that pass at comparatively elementary levels. So what is randomness?
According to Swift (1998), randomness is something or a situation that has no explicit purpose, direction and it happens haphazardly. Randomness is void of predictability and is defined well in the precepts of chance and probability. Bennett (1998) must have made this observation when she said that, “misconceptions abound, and certain concepts seem to be particularly problematic. To even the mathematically enlightened; some issues in probability are not so intuitive” (p. 2).
There is no way we can predict some events even in the most serious issues like passing judgment in legal systems. For instance, take a situation where a hit and run incident occurs in a town where there are only twice green as white cars. What is the probability that a white car was involved in the accident? The probability rule has to apply here. Through randomness, we can say the probability that a green car was involved is higher than a white car. However, we cannot single out the green car with certainty. Therefore, there will not be fairness in giving our verdict. Bennett (1998) posits that, “When chance determines the outcome, no amount of skill, strength, knowledge, or experience can give one party an advantage and ‘luck’ emerges as an equalizing force” (p. 12).
Sometimes due to randomness, we may take precaution on the way decisions are made; but reach a dead end in the process. For instance, in determining a result in a game without a referee, players may want to be concerned about the method of giving the scores. If these players do not agree as they hold on to different opinions, the game may end prematurely. In such a case, tossing a coin may be the better option to quell dissension. Randomness therefore may serve purpose in cases where there is an impasse. Without randomness, there would be so many unsolved problems thus this process is essential. Nevertheless, this raises the question of fairness.
Many would love to know whether this process is fair. Those who are opposed to randomness should offer amicable ways of solving problems of this sort. It is true that in a situation where the outcomes are bad but a single outcome is worse than the rest; fairness will not be probable if randomness takes place. However, there has to be a way out of the situation, and this leaves randomness as the only option.
Talk of justice and one will remember the story of Achan and Joshua of the Old Testament in the bible. Joshua had to cast a lot to determine who the guilty party was. Even though the lot fell on Achan, he strongly questioned the method used to reach a decision. Interestingly, Achan later professed his sin; hence, the questioning of randomness in this case becomes irrelevant (Bennett, 1998, p. 16). Even in modern times, use of chance cannot be divorced from decision-making. People will quickly resort to chance when the outcome is of no importance, or when people cannot reach a mutual agreement on a given issue. Bennett (1998) notes that, “In ancient times, randomizers that eliminated any human element of logic or skill played a major role in games and in important life decisions” (p. 17). Interestingly, this phenomenon has not changed and the same happens today whether we are opposed to it or not.
Bennett (1998) concurs that people have utilized randomness from ancient times to decide on issues like property allotment and division, settle disputes, or designate civic duties among other practices. There is indisputable evidence that chance was used in ancient times in making decisions. According to Bennett (2008), there is evidence that gaming was rife around Minoan civilization around 2400-2100 (p. 17). Even though there is not enough evidence to confirm that dice was used around this time, people believe that this game was like backgammon. Why should we recourse to chance? Why should those who are opposed to randomness change their minds?
Well, it is clear that randomness was and still is rife in society. In addition to the aforementioned evidence, Bennett (2008) posits that, “Emperor Augustus was devoted to gaming and even invited his dinner guests with a sum of money incase they wanted to play at dice or at odd-and-even during the dinner (p. 23). Fundamentally, people learn from the past, especially from ancient times. We do things based on what we have learnt from the past. Consequently, if these ancient people, even kings used chance to determine some contentious issues, and this trend has persisted to contemporary times, then randomness has no harm as many would want to think.
Moreover, chance was used within divine circles. Even though ancient people believed in deity as opposed to chance determined events, they still employed chance to obviate the likelihood of human encumbrance to discern the will of deity. This is still happening today. Those who oppose randomness they still apply it even though in different manner just as ancient people used divination instead of chance but in principle they meant the same thing.
Therefore, in the wake of this knowledge, randomness is essential; actually, we cannot lead our lives without applying randomness from time to time. Those who are opposed to it let them understand the revelations made by Deborah Bennett in her book, “Randomness.” Additionally, randomness is employed in diverse areas including biology, physics, mathematics, finance, and information science among other areas. Therefore, randomization or chance is not that complex as many think; it is based on simple understanding; that is, chance
References List
Bennett, J. (2008). Randomness. Harvard University Press.
Swift, R. (1998). Randomness by Deborah J. Bennett. The Mathematical Association of America. Web.