Introduction.

Although randomness is very common, it is a topic with a lot of loose ends. Whether it’s something as small as the rolling of a die or something a bit more extreme, like lightning during a thunderstorm, random events are all around us. However, the reason to why such things happen in unknown. Is it really possible to not be able to predict an event at all? Can an event really have no pattern, or is the pattern just too complex for the human mind? Perhaps random is just an adjective that we use to describe things that we can’t understand.
The concept of randomness can sometimes be very hard to grasp. It is important to firstly ensure that we understand what randomness actually is. The oxford English dictionary defines random thus:
"having no definite aim or purpose; not sent or guided in a particular direction; mad, done, occurring etc. without method or conscious choice; haphazard". This definition is easy to understand however, it indicates that randomness is subjective. What may seem like a totally random, unpredictable event to one person may be seen as a clear pattern to another. Wikipedia discussed this issue: “Randomness, as opposed to unpredictability, is held to be an objective property -determinists believe it is an objective fact that randomness does not in fact exist. Also, what appears random to one observer may not appear random to another.” This statement shows that my suggestion may be correct; events that seem random may just be patterns that are too difficult for people to understand. It may be possible that in the future, with enough extensive mathematical research, the concept of random can be eliminated but this is highly unlikely.
Probability gives us a way of understanding more about random. It is now easy to make rough predictions. For example, if a die was rolled 300 times, each number should show up roughly 50 times because the probability of a number showing is 1 in 6. However, if one was asked to predict the next number that will come up when rolling the die, it is no longer a simple process. This quote from Wikipedia explains this point more effectively: "Closely connected, therefore, with the concepts of chance, probability, and information entropy, randomness implies a lack of predictability. More formally, in statistics, a random process is a repeating process whose outcomes follow no describable deterministic pattern, but follow a probability distribution, such that the relative probability of the occurrence of each outcome can be approximated or calculated. For example, the rolling of a fair six-sided die in neutral conditions may be said to produce random results, because one cannot compute, before a roll, what number will show up. However, the probability of rolling any one of the six rollable numbers can be calculated, assuming that each is equally likely."
So, random is a word used to describe a series of events that never repeat themselves and cannot be accurately predicted. This dissertation is an investigation into whether pure randomness exists. I will collect evidence from a variety of sources supporting both sides of the argument in order to allow myself to make my own conclusion about whether randomness really exists. This conclusion will be entirely my own opinion, based on my research; I am not trying to prove whether pure randomness exists, I am just hoping to learn enough to allow myself to understand the arguments around it and therefore have my own thoughts about randomness.