The power of randomness

[Ivory_Tower]

I have a component MP3 player that's connected to my home network to play the MP3s on my computer over the stereo. I've ripped about 9000 tracks off my CDs so far, so random play is pretty nice.

This morning, I put the player on random play as I blearily got ready for work. The player started with an old, soft piece by Harry Nilsson, followed by two soft Japanese pop pieces (one by Karen Mok, one by Adrian Chen). The tempo slowly picked up with a live Phish track ("Bouncing 'Round The Room"), but still remained somewhat mellow. This was followed by a purely percussion track from Diga Rhythm Band, then by a live track from Widespread Panic, and finally a track from Nine Inch Nails. Yeah, I was pretty awake by then. I was practically dancing out the door during The Grateful Dead's "Don't Ease Me In".

I thought it was interesting that a randomly-generated track sequence could bring up a selection of songs that nearly perfectly fit what I needed this morning.

I also think this is a good example of a random occurrence that on the surface can appear to have been planned. Sometimes these things happen.

Now back to work I go....

[donsu]

1. well, they have discovered that

Randomness (and Chaos) indeed has a pattern.