Mind Over Matter -- in miniature by Mario
Varvoglis, Ph.D.
Electronic dice: The Random
Number Generator (RNG)
You can think of these hardware RNGs as ‘electronic roulette wheels,’
‘electronic coin-flippers’ or ‘electronic dice’ -- they can be
configured to simulate any kind of random system. For example, if we have a two-position
RNG, then it’s like an electronic coin-flipper, and, as with real coins, the person
must show that they can shift the outcomes away from the usual 50-50 distribution of
outcomes. But of course, in the electronic version, we have some more liberty in the way
our ‘coin’ will look. In one of his early RNG models, Schmidt created a device
with a number of lights arranged in a clock-like display. Depending on the outcome of the
electronic coin-flip, the next bulb lighting up would be the one situated either clockwise
or counter-clockwise to the currently lit bulb. So, by chance alone, you’d expect the
lights to progress very little in either direction, randomly moving either way about the
same number of times. Schmidt found, however, that a few subjects could make the lights
follow a specific direction -- say clockwise -- in a rather sustained manner; their
statistical results were highly significant. |
