Test your “free will” at the Aaronson Oracle

Post by joe_the_user » Thu, Jun 02, 2016, 8:07 PM UTC

brianpan wrote: post #104

DanielStraight wrote: post #92

You can use its own output against it. (Which means, ironically, it does not follow "know thyself", a maxim said to be from the Oracle at Delphi.) Fixate on a number fairly late in the sequence (the millionths place seems to work well). If that number is 5-9, push 'f'. Otherwise, push 'd'. Keeps it pretty consistently around 0.5.

You got 0.5, but where's your free will now, human?

Post by ElijahLynn » Thu, Jun 02, 2016, 8:13 PM UTC

Post by steego » Thu, Jun 02, 2016, 8:14 PM UTC

thaumasiotes wrote: post #151

zzrg wrote: post #65

When I was little (and had too much free time) I memorized many digits of some transcendental numbers. The only (semi)practical use I've found for that knowledge, is that I can use it as a reasonably good pseudorandom stream. If for some reason I have to choose things pseudorandomly. Pick an arbitrary starting point in pi, and press 'd' for even digits and 'f' for odd digits, I get around 0.49 accuracy with this orac…

You don't need a transcendental number; simple counting has perfect entropy: 0 1 10 11 100 101 110 111 1000 1001 1010 1011 1100 1101 1110 1111 10000... (Granted, that is a transcendental number -- the Champernowne constant for base 2 -- but there's no real need to think of it that way.)

Post by logfromblammo » Thu, Jun 02, 2016, 8:15 PM UTC

vonmoltke wrote: post #98

IanCal wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm guessing this: http://en.akinator.com/

I have been having way too much fun with this, but it really goes off the rails sometimes. I am currently in a stream where the correct answer is "Ambrose Bunside". It asked me if my character has been dead for more than 100 years, then two questions later asked me if my character uses musical.ly. :/

Post by amasad » Thu, Jun 02, 2016, 8:24 PM UTC

shkkmo wrote: post #117

amasad wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's been a number studies that showed that humans are bad at random number generation. e.g. "Humans cannot consciously generate random numbers sequences" http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17888582

Humans are bad at random number generation, until you train them to do it. Randomness is a skill that can be learned like any other.