On Why and What of Randomness

Extended Abstract: This paper has several objectives. First, it separates randomness from lawlessness and shows why even genuine randomness does not imply lawlessness. Second, it separates the question “why should I call a phenomenon random?” (and answers it in part one ) from the patent question “What is a random sequence?” for which the answer lies in Kolmogorov complexity ( which is explained in part two ). While answering the first question the note argues why there should be four motivating factors for calling a phenomenon random: ontic, epistemic, pseudo and telescopic, the first two depicting “genuine” randomness and the last two “false”. The author argues that the “why” part is meant for randomness in general while the “what” part is better suited for a random sequence. Ontic in the article means what is actual (irrespective of our knowledge). Epistemic is what we know (hence it relates to our knowledge of something). The literal meaning of pseudo is false. However the author carefully splits false into two categories: one is false that looks like genuine and only this is called pseudo in the article. The other is false that looks like false but gives us some potential benefits if realized as genuine. This other false randomness the author calls telescopic meaning deliberately realized. This new usage of the word telescopic (which normally means farseeing) needs a little understanding and practice. The words deliberately and realized are both important to understand what telescopic means in such an unconventional usage. Since telescopic randomness is a difficult concept, the author tries his best to explain it with technical and non-technical arguments. Third, ontic and epistemic randomness have been distinguished from ontic and epistemic probability. Fourth, it encourages students to be applied statisticians and advises against becoming armchair theorists but this is interestingly achieved by a straight application of telescopic randomness. Overall, it tells (the teacher) not to jump to probability without explaining randomness properly first and similarly advises the students to read (and understand) randomness minutely before taking on probability.