(Excerpt from The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, page 0011010000110010, section 4t. Entry: Randomness)
Randomness is really quite random. It is so random, that true randomness is really the only thing that can prove that the Infinite Improbability Drive, a truly remarkable spaceship engine that can travel anywhere in the universe if you can simply figure out how improbable it is to get there, does not employ randomness when you turn it on without first activating the proofing screens. It simply picks a rate of improbability, though not at random as it may seem, and does whatever is improbable at that rate of improbability. While it may seem that the Infinite Improbability Drive's process of picking a rate of improbability is completely random, this is not true at all, and is a load of dingo's kidneys. No computer (still existing) could possible hold every number in the universe in its memory at one time. It's simply impossible at the levels computers are at this time, seeing as there is no limit to the numbers in the universe, and the computer would have to have an infinite memory (The workers in the Curiosity Retaliation Association Parliament department of Sirius Cybernetics Corporation are currently working on this problem. They are currently completely out to lunch, and are scheduled to be so 'for the next millennium or so'.)to hold an infinite amount of numbers, and since the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation hasn't made any major break-throughs, or more accurately, none at all, it doesn't seem like it's going to be possible for a computer to pick a number at random anytime soon.
How the Infinite
Improbability Drive picks the rate of improbability isn't all that
interesting, so we suggest if you want to find out about such an
utterly dull subject that involves lots of numbers and big words, do
us all a favor and go buy a copy of Encyclopedia Galactica and
jump in front of a Ravenous Bugblatter Beast without a blindfold.
What all this
means, for those of you who have not been devoured by Ravenous
Bugblatter Beasts, is that true randomness is not really achievable,
and many scientists have expressed that they feel that is 'kind of
a bummer'. This fact also drives many people to try and figure out
what caused Douglas Adams, a former resident of Earth, to type in the
number 42 one night while writing. This question, among many others,
is still kept open due to randomness being unachievable. Some of
these questions have caused so much ruckus, that it seems that God
aught to just make randomness possible and be done with it. God,
however, is not known to be very concerned with pleasing the
universe's inhabitants.
(Excerpt from Encyclopedia Galactica, page 434, section 3b. Entry: Randomness)
Randomness is the act of something being done, without any variables or influential factors to influence the outcome at all. In true randomness, probability must not be a factor, for that would influence the outcome. As this is quite a hard situation to achieve, the word random is often used when probability comes into play.
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A/N: Eh. This is just a random (xP) thing I came up with one night and decided to put it up. This is why it is unhealthy for me to re-read The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy -.-