Is anything truly random?

Feb 14, 2025

Hugo Duminil-Copin, a Fields Medal-winning mathematician at the University of Geneva, dives into the enigma of randomness. He demonstrates how our brains often misinterpret random patterns, even during playful experiments like coin flips. The conversation explores whether anything is truly random and the philosophical implications of predictability, especially in quantum physics. Additionally, insights from cognitive neuroscience reveal why humans seek order amid chaos, shedding light on the intricate relationship between randomness and perception.

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ANECDOTE

Bathroom Tile Fiasco

Dorit, living in Austria, wanted a random tile pattern in her bathroom.
The tiler sent photos, but Dorit found patterns, leading to disagreements.

INSIGHT

Human Randomness Perception

Humans struggle to create or recognize true randomness.
Our brains seek patterns, even where none exist.

INSIGHT

Visual Order Bias

Our visual system seeks order and groups similar elements.
This makes it difficult to perceive true randomness in visual patterns.

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CrowdScience listener Dorit has a problem. She wants the tiles in her new bathroom to be arranged randomly but, no matter what she does, it still looks like they form some kind of pattern.

This has got Dorit thinking about randomness – what is it, how do you create it, why do we find it so hard to recognise, and is anything really random at all? And if nothing is truly random, does it mean that everything is theoretically predictable? Tiling your bathroom is a much more existential problem than you might have thought.

Never afraid of a question, whether big (is everything pre-determined?) or small (how do I tile my bathroom?), CrowdScience is on the case.

Anand Jagatia heads to Switzerland to meet Hugo Duminil-Copin, a mathematician at the University of Geneva who specialises in probability theory. On the top floor of an old bank, Hugo has Anand flipping an imaginary coin in a random order. Hugo explains that randomness is something that cannot be predicted by any means – so why is it so easy for Hugo to guess what Anand’s next move is?

Meanwhile, at the National Institutes of Mental Health in Maryland USA, Susan Wardle is a cognitive neuroscientist who researches how the human brain processes visual information. Can neuroscience help Dorit with her tiling problem, and is there a reason why the human brain likes to put random objects into some kind of order?

Geneva is also the birthplace of the first Quantum Random Number Generator for smartphones, and CrowdScience has persuaded some of the University of Geneva’s finest quantum physicists to hook a photon detector up to a synthesiser. Thanks to Tiff Brydges and Nicolas Brunner, we can actually hear quantum particles behaving randomly. But is quantum randomness truly random, or just a pattern that we can’t see? And could quantum physics help Dorit tile her bathroom?

Presenter: Anand Jagatia Producer: Ben Motley Editor: Cathy Edwards Production co-ordinator: Ishmael Soriano Technical producer: Jackie Margerum