Does the universe roll dice, or does it count?
Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Abstract: What began as a five-line Python script to flip a coin 100 times turns into an exploration of what randomness actually is. Starting from the law of large numbers and the design of pseudo-random generators (the Mersenne Twister, rejection sampling), the essay asks whether quantum randomness could instead be a deterministic pattern sampled at coarse time intervals — an "odometer universe" that counts rather than rolls. It shows why a purely periodic or low-discrepancy source would leave a measurable statistical fingerprint (a bounded deviation instead of the √n growth that real quantum random number generators exhibit), and connects the idea to Boltzmann's ergodic hypothesis, Gerard 't Hooft's cellular-automaton interpretation of quantum mechanics, and the Hossenfelder–Palmer superdeterminism proposal. It closes on the block universe and Wolfram's computational irreducibility. All code and tables in the piece are real output. Originally published at recepcinet.com.
Author: Cinet, Recep
Language: English
Subfield: Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7212864615
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