Re: A long post about DUMB METATHERIANS vs EVIL, SMART PLACENTALS

[Dinogeorge@aol.com]

In a message dated 5/22/01 7:25:59 AM EST, jbois@umd5.umd.edu writes:

<< So what differential survival percentages would tell you that it was _not_
 random? I agree that "99% to 99.1%" could be random. >>

"Random" doesn't simply mean "equally likely to happen." That's only one kind 
of randomness. There are infinitely many kinds of randomness. For example, 
you can compose an infinitely long string of random digits 0,...,9 with a 
randomness function such as "40% chance of 0, 20% chance of 1, 10% chance of 
2, 5% chance of 3, 5% chance of 4, 5% chance of 5, 5% chance of 6, 4% chance 
of 7, 3% chance of 8, and 3% chance of 9." This would yield strings with lots 
of 0's and 1's with a few of the other digits sprinkled in, but there's no 
way to predict what digit will be at any place in the string. (Just make sure 
the probabilities add up to 100% in the randomness function, is all.) Indeed, 
in a general sense, the infinite number of ways to be random infinitely 
overwhelms the lesser infinite number of ways to be patterned.