Randomness

Author: Deborah J. Bennett
Publisher:
Publication Date: 2001-01-01
Features: From ancient explanations of bird anatomy to your neighbor's recent lottery win, humans have always been governed by probability. Today, in the likelihood of a false-negative in drug testing, the reliability of DNA as legal evidence, or the possibility of passing on a fatal genetic disease, when probability comes into play, life itself can be at stake. But as always, almost no one understands such possibilities. The goal of this book is to address the difficulties encountered when trying to learn about probability. Randomness is a story of how human civilization has overcome misunderstandings and challenges in moving toward probabilistic thinking, and it is also a clever explanation of what makes probability science so terrifying in our time. First, it is not easy to develop an intuitive grasp of probability, and further problems arise in moving from the concept of intuition to formal probability concepts. The author, Deborah J. Bennett, traces the path each individual takes in trying to grasp the concepts of uncertainty and fairness, as well as the parallel paths by which societies have developed their ideas about probability. Why have people throughout history relied on probability when making decisions? Are decisions made by random selection "fair"? What role does gambling play in our understanding of probability? Why do certain individuals and groups completely reject randomness? If understanding randomness is so important for probabilistic thinking, why do experts disagree on what it is? And why are our intuitions about probability almost always completely wrong? Everyone who is confused by probability puzzles will be impressed by the paradoxes and counterintuitive results that arise even at a relatively simple level. Why is this the case, how has it been formed over time, and what makes Randomness both engaging and thought-provoking—this is the content that confuses both the muddled and the brilliant mathematicians alike.