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From: stevens@prodigal.psych.rochester.edu (Greg Stevens)
Subject: Re: Randomness is a human concept (was Re: Time is a human concept)
Message-ID: <1994Oct29.001905.3665@galileo.cc.rochester.edu>
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Date: Sat, 29 Oct 94 00:19:05 GMT
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In <38qhnm$117@whitbeck.ncl.ac.uk> n4521558 <Rob.Smith@ncl.ac.uk> writes:
>In article <1994Oct13.135253.21576@galileo.cc.rochester.edu>, stevens@prodigal.psych.rochester.edu (Greg Stevens) says:

>>I think it's funny that you say RANDOMNESS is a human concept, when I
>>would have intuitively stated it as PATTERN is a human concept (pattern
>>being the opposite of randomness).

>If randomness ISN'T s humsn concept, then where is it?
>Can you honestly say that you can find something truly random, or
>are 'random' processes governed by very complex non-linear but
>deterministic laws?

Hmmmm.   I think you missed my point, which is that randomness and pattern
are two sides of the same coin, and stating that one is a human concept while
the other is "actual" in some way is to forget the role WE are playing in
distinguishing the two to begin with -- what, after all, would deeming 
something "patterned" distinguish if everything was?

Greg

