Re: Truly Random Numbers On A Quantum Computer??

From	Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid>
Newsgroups	comp.misc
Subject	Re: Truly Random Numbers On A Quantum Computer??
Date	2025-03-28 23:10 +0000
Organization	A noiseless patient Spider
Message-ID	<vs7a9c$3pg3k$1@dont-email.me> (permalink)
References	<vs73jc$3jepm$1@dont-email.me>

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On Fri, 28 Mar 2025 21:16:29 -0000 (UTC), I wrote:

> The definition of “randomness” is “you don’t know what’s coming next”.
> How do you prove you don’t know something? You can’t. There are various
> statistical tests for randomness, but remember that a suitably encrypted
> message can pass every one of them, and a person who knows the message
> knows that the bitstream is not truly random.

Here’s an even simpler proof, by reductio ad absurdum.

Suppose you have a sequence of numbers which is provably random. Simply 
pregenerate a large bunch of numbers according to that sequence, and store 
them. Then supply them one by one to another party. The other party 
doesn’t know what’s coming next, but you do. Therefore they are not random 
to you.

Which contradicts the original assumption of provable randomness. QED.

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Truly Random Numbers On A Quantum Computer?? Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2025-03-28 21:16 +0000
  Re: Truly Random Numbers On A Quantum Computer?? Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2025-03-28 23:10 +0000
    Re: Truly Random Numbers On A Quantum Computer?? Richmond <dnomhcir@gmx.com> - 2025-03-29 11:50 +0000
      Re: Truly Random Numbers On A Quantum Computer?? Richard Kettlewell <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2025-03-29 15:05 +0000
        Re: Truly Random Numbers On A Quantum Computer?? kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) - 2025-03-29 12:58 -0400
        Re: Truly Random Numbers On A Quantum Computer?? Mike Spencer <mds@bogus.nodomain.nowhere> - 2025-03-29 18:38 -0300
          Re: Truly Random Numbers On A Quantum Computer?? Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2025-03-29 22:08 +0000
            Re: Truly Random Numbers On A Quantum Computer?? Mike Spencer <mds@bogus.nodomain.nowhere> - 2025-03-30 04:37 -0300
        Re: Truly Random Numbers On A Quantum Computer?? not@telling.you.invalid (Computer Nerd Kev) - 2025-03-30 09:31 +1000
          Re: Truly Random Numbers On A Quantum Computer?? Richard Kettlewell <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2025-03-30 11:14 +0100
            Re: Truly Random Numbers On A Quantum Computer?? Richard Kettlewell <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2025-03-30 11:28 +0100
              Re: Truly Random Numbers On A Quantum Computer?? kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) - 2025-03-30 09:11 -0400
                Re: Truly Random Numbers On A Quantum Computer?? Toaster <toaster@dne3.net> - 2025-04-04 20:16 -0400
                Re: Truly Random Numbers On A Quantum Computer?? kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) - 2025-04-04 20:56 -0400
                Re: Truly Random Numbers On A Quantum Computer?? Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2025-04-05 02:13 +0000
                Re: Truly Random Numbers On A Quantum Computer?? Richard Kettlewell <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2025-04-05 09:08 +0100
          Re: Truly Random Numbers On A Quantum Computer?? Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2025-03-30 21:18 +0000
            Re: Truly Random Numbers On A Quantum Computer?? not@telling.you.invalid (Computer Nerd Kev) - 2025-03-31 08:15 +1000
              Re: Truly Random Numbers On A Quantum Computer?? Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2025-03-31 01:30 +0000
      Re: Truly Random Numbers On A Quantum Computer?? Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2025-03-29 22:09 +0000
        Re: Truly Random Numbers On A Quantum Computer?? Richmond <dnomhcir@gmx.com> - 2025-03-29 22:39 +0000
          Re: Truly Random Numbers On A Quantum Computer?? Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2025-03-31 01:29 +0000
    Re: Truly Random Numbers On A Quantum Computer?? Ethan Carter <ec1828@gmail.com> - 2025-03-29 20:25 -0300
      Re: Truly Random Numbers On A Quantum Computer?? Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2025-03-30 04:58 +0000
        Re: Truly Random Numbers On A Quantum Computer?? Ethan Carter <ec1828@gmail.com> - 2025-03-30 11:19 -0300
          Re: Truly Random Numbers On A Quantum Computer?? Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2025-03-31 01:32 +0000
            Re: Truly Random Numbers On A Quantum Computer?? Ethan Carter <ec1828@somewhere.edu> - 2025-04-01 10:25 -0300
              Re: Truly Random Numbers On A Quantum Computer?? Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2025-04-04 19:05 +0000
          Re: Truly Random Numbers On A Quantum Computer?? Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2025-03-31 01:34 +0000
            Re: Truly Random Numbers On A Quantum Computer?? Ethan Carter <ec1828@somewhere.edu> - 2025-04-01 10:31 -0300
              Re: Truly Random Numbers On A Quantum Computer?? Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2025-04-04 19:05 +0000

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