What Is Random?

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xx

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2. The Taming of Chance

   • Edward Beltrami

   Pages 1-34

3. Uncertainty and Information

   • Edward Beltrami

   Pages 35-64

4. Janus-Faced Randomness

   • Edward Beltrami

   Pages 65-90

5. Algorithms, Information, and Chance

   • Edward Beltrami

   Pages 91-116

6. The Edge of Randomness

   • Edward Beltrami

   Pages 117-144

7. Back Matter

   Pages 145-201

   PDF

This book is intended to provoke, entertain, and inform by challenging the reader's ideas about randomness, providing first one and then another interpretation of what this elusive concept means. As the book progresses, the author teases out the various threads and shows how mathematics, communication engineering, computer science, philosophy, physics, and psychology all contribute to the discourse by illuminating different facets of the same idea.


The material in this book should be readily accessible to anyone with experience in undergraduate mathematics, no calculus needed. Three appendices provide some of the background information regarding binary representations and logarithms that are needed. Although an effort is made to justify most statements of a mathematical nature, a few are presented without corroboration, since they entail close-knit arguments that would detract from the main ideas. Readers can safely bypass the details without any loss, andin any case, the fine points are available in the technical notes assembled at the end.




       


             
               

• algorithmic complexity
• boundary element method
• complexity
• decidability
• distribution
• entropy
• form
• knowledge
• law of large numbers
• mathematics
• perception
• probability
• similarity
• theorem
• uncertainty

From the reviews:

THE AMERICAN STATISTICIAN

"In summary, I think that many readers with a strong interest in mathematics, statistics, physics, or other areas of science will find this book interesting and challenging. I strongly recommend it to all who are interested in science and would like to see how the ideas of both theoretical mathematics and statistics have been observed and used in real life throughout history."

MATHEMATICAL REVIEWS

"The book is nicely written and should entertain many readers…"

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