Question

I am trying to test 100 different sets of 100 random human generated numbers for randomness in comparison to the randomness of 100 different sets of 100 random computer generated numbers, but the diehard program wants a single set of around 100000 numbers.
I was wondering if it’s possible to combine the human sets together into a block of 100000 numbers by using the human numbers as a seed for a pseudo number generator, and using the output as the number to test for the diehard program. I would do the same with the computer set with the same pseudo random generator. Would this actually change the result of the randomness if all I’m trying to prove is that computer generated numbers is more random than human generated numbers?

Answer 1

You can try just concatenating the numbers. I wouldn’t think any combination would consistently be a lot better than some other. Any way of combining the numbers would cause them to lose some properties (possibly including the classification of ‘random’ by some test) regardless (some combinations more than others in certain cases, but if we’re dealing with random numbers, you can’t really predict much).

I’m not sure why you’d want to use the numbers as a seed for another random number generator (if I understand you correctly). This will not yield any useful applicable results. If you use a random number generator, you will get a sequence of numbers from a pseudo-random set, the seed will only determine where in this set you start, starting with any seed should produce as random results as starting with any other seed.

Any alleged test for randomness can, at best, say that some set is probably random. No test can measure true randomness accurately, that would probably contradict the definition of randomness.