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A Million Random Digits with 100,000 Normal Deviates
This book was a product of RAND's pioneering work in computing, as well a testament to the patience and persistence of researchers in the early days of RAND.
628 pages, Paperback
First published November 15, 2001
10 people are currently reading
219 people want to read
About the author
RAND Corporation
52 books7 followersThe RAND Corporation is an American nonprofit global policy think tank, research institute, and public sector consulting firm.
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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
May 8, 2012
Just like the title says, this book contains one million random digits. It was anything but predictable. In fact, I didn't know how it was going to end until the last page.
June 8, 2008
Yet another brilliant contribution to our culture by the Rand Corporation.
A work of shocking deviates and heartrending inequalities, the plot will keep you guessing all the way to its bold climax and controversial ending. I'd have never guessed the outcome of this book! I only wish that Rand would do more to develop some of the characters. For instance, I was intrigued by 93714, but was disappointed that she never appeared later in the story.
All in all, though, a classic.
A work of shocking deviates and heartrending inequalities, the plot will keep you guessing all the way to its bold climax and controversial ending. I'd have never guessed the outcome of this book! I only wish that Rand would do more to develop some of the characters. For instance, I was intrigued by 93714, but was disappointed that she never appeared later in the story.
All in all, though, a classic.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 15, 2011
Some books are the toast of the town - praises sung to the heavens by the literati elite - yet fail to satisfy.
In contrast, this one delivers - big time. It's not without reason that the Rand Corporation named this little baby A Million Random Digits (feat. 100,000 Normal Deviates).
WARNING - SPOILER!
Here's a taste of page 117:
"05800 23930 04508 62244 35048 50242 67999 31536 25407 71989 45433"
If you want more (and surely you do!) go get yourself a copy - wherever Rand Corporation publications are sold!
In contrast, this one delivers - big time. It's not without reason that the Rand Corporation named this little baby A Million Random Digits (feat. 100,000 Normal Deviates).
WARNING - SPOILER!
Here's a taste of page 117:
"05800 23930 04508 62244 35048 50242 67999 31536 25407 71989 45433"
If you want more (and surely you do!) go get yourself a copy - wherever Rand Corporation publications are sold!
June 28, 2016
I'm blown away by how much creativity is in this book. Not one moment I was bored because I never knew what was going to happen next.
Currently reading
March 9, 2007It's gotten off to a rollicking start, but I don't know if they're going to be able to sustain the energy....
June 8, 2010
This is a book of 1 million random digits. Seriously. That's all.
October 6, 2018
A unique book and a unique plot. Parts of the book remind me slightly of the movie "And then there were none". except the plot is much more complex and intricate. You truly cannot tell how many there will be at any point in time.
Here is a tip if you want new take on an old classic. When you get to the 5848394382..... part rotate the book upside down and read the pages in sequence but upside down. That way the overall plot is the same, and there are the same original 9 characters but you get an alternative ending.
Here is a tip if you want new take on an old classic. When you get to the 5848394382..... part rotate the book upside down and read the pages in sequence but upside down. That way the overall plot is the same, and there are the same original 9 characters but you get an alternative ending.
February 11, 2015
A gripping story, well developed characters and some very quotable writing. I particularly like 3976897 and his friend 976887. Surprisingly repetitive at times, however - there are only 9 or so distinct themes in the entire book. The authors skill lies in his ability to combine them.
August 22, 2011
very interesting...
June 1, 2012
It is what it is. I use it for illustrating what a probability ot 1/1,000,000 actually looks like.
April 18, 2021
Couldn't put it down
June 12, 2021
gripping
dnf
May 13, 2022Not an exhilarating read.
April 17, 2024
crazy!!! i honestly didn’t see the end coming at all! 10/10
June 23, 2022
I featured this book on a "Meme Review" segment of my podcast (Review Party Dot Com), highlighting the unexpected attention it has received, sampling a selection of jokey reviews, then reading it myself and adding my own jokey AND legitimate reviews to the pile. Find them below...
My Meme Review
Used to be you’d ask a lady for her digits, call her up, and if you were lucky, you’d spend a night enjoying the warm embrace of another human. Used to be simple. Used to make sense. Used to feel real.
No more. No, now the only thing that grips you, day after day, is worry. But then again, that just gets worn down by an ever-pressing weariness, the kind that draws the life out of you, bit by bit, until the morning you pull your knife on that stranger in the mirror.
I don’t remember when it was, I first spotted a femme droid in the city; she was standing there like any other creep, waiting for the bus home from work. I’d say it was a crisp autumn day, but every day is so Goddamn hot anymore, it’s hard to tell. Maybe it was just the chill I felt in my bones, my heart, in that useless stuff called flesh and blood.
These days, that stuff’s pretty rare, and companionship more scarce than ever.
“How aboutta night with a ‘real woman’” they say from the corners, “don’tcha want a goil who don’t get tired?” Whoever the hell taught’em to speak that way, I’ve half a mind to- well, let’s just say it’s about as appealing as a straight shave from a cyclops, these Goddamned sirens.
Funny. Even now, my business is chasing sirens.
And even if they aren’t living, they are my living; so I guess I owe them, them and the RAND. When these bots run off with some sad sap’s pocket change, or worse, I know where to look. I know how to talk. Once upon a time, a wink and some wit would land you answers. These days it’s a mathematical masquerade; we dance around each other until a certain sequence rings in their ears. Or what you’d call ears, anyway.
I stand, book in hand, and quote, like some damned fool pouring out his heart of poetry or a mad preacher lamenting the end of days. And maybe I’m both.
“57186” “40218” “16544”
That’s all it takes. They settle into themselves, somehow give the impression they’re blushing but without any blood. Sometimes all I’ll manage is one digit and the code is cracked. Like they were dying for someone to talk to, dying to be treated like something more than what they are.
But how can you be dying for something if you never really lived for something?
And is never really living any worse than living in a world that doesn’t look like what you remember?
There’s an old joke, goes: do androids dream of electric sheep? The ones I meet never sleep again, but one once let slip that they do dream, or something like it. And it’s all random numbers. Endless combinations and infinite possibilities. Like in the book. Like in the RAND.
I come to them speaking their dreams and fanatasies, and then I snuff’em out.
How is it that I feel sorry for them, a touch of envy in my eyes as theirs go dim.
Maybe that’s just the weariness talking.
What a weight to be human. Still.
My Real Review
In the modern era, the age of the internet, a time of smart-anythings and bluetooth-everythings, with wifi ALWAYS enabled, this book is not going to offer you much in the way of practical utility.
If you need random numbers, in bulk or otherwise, a heavy book is not likely your go-to option; the computing power of today overwhelmingly dwarfs what was capable at the time of this book’s publication. The ENIAC, which was 8’x3’x100’ in size and had to be manually rewired to change its “programming” for a new task, could calculate missile trajectories in 15 seconds (the same calculations taking a human two weeks). Today we would struggle to even measure the slightness of time taken to make the same calculations.
Modern iPhones have more processing power than any machine deemed a supercomputer through the year 2001. Coincidentally, also in 2001, this book was reissued by RAND, and its apparent novelty and “random”ness led to a high (but very countable) number of whimsical reviews, this one included.
So what can you do with this book? What’s it good for?
Well, it takes up space on a shelf or coffee table. If you enjoy data, statistics, math, or just old book smells and yellowed pages, you’d probably enjoy an old copy. No one needs the reissue, not even as a joke.
Much like How to Avoid Huge Ships, the market for this book shrinks evermore as time and technology take over. If you want the history lesson, here they are, but we might as well just leave them be.
I mean, you can actually read How to Avoid Huge Ships, so no knocks against it. And you will learn, too. But there isn’t much to be learned here. It’s just numbers. Let the dead lie.
My Meme Review
Used to be you’d ask a lady for her digits, call her up, and if you were lucky, you’d spend a night enjoying the warm embrace of another human. Used to be simple. Used to make sense. Used to feel real.
No more. No, now the only thing that grips you, day after day, is worry. But then again, that just gets worn down by an ever-pressing weariness, the kind that draws the life out of you, bit by bit, until the morning you pull your knife on that stranger in the mirror.
I don’t remember when it was, I first spotted a femme droid in the city; she was standing there like any other creep, waiting for the bus home from work. I’d say it was a crisp autumn day, but every day is so Goddamn hot anymore, it’s hard to tell. Maybe it was just the chill I felt in my bones, my heart, in that useless stuff called flesh and blood.
These days, that stuff’s pretty rare, and companionship more scarce than ever.
“How aboutta night with a ‘real woman’” they say from the corners, “don’tcha want a goil who don’t get tired?” Whoever the hell taught’em to speak that way, I’ve half a mind to- well, let’s just say it’s about as appealing as a straight shave from a cyclops, these Goddamned sirens.
Funny. Even now, my business is chasing sirens.
And even if they aren’t living, they are my living; so I guess I owe them, them and the RAND. When these bots run off with some sad sap’s pocket change, or worse, I know where to look. I know how to talk. Once upon a time, a wink and some wit would land you answers. These days it’s a mathematical masquerade; we dance around each other until a certain sequence rings in their ears. Or what you’d call ears, anyway.
I stand, book in hand, and quote, like some damned fool pouring out his heart of poetry or a mad preacher lamenting the end of days. And maybe I’m both.
“57186” “40218” “16544”
That’s all it takes. They settle into themselves, somehow give the impression they’re blushing but without any blood. Sometimes all I’ll manage is one digit and the code is cracked. Like they were dying for someone to talk to, dying to be treated like something more than what they are.
But how can you be dying for something if you never really lived for something?
And is never really living any worse than living in a world that doesn’t look like what you remember?
There’s an old joke, goes: do androids dream of electric sheep? The ones I meet never sleep again, but one once let slip that they do dream, or something like it. And it’s all random numbers. Endless combinations and infinite possibilities. Like in the book. Like in the RAND.
I come to them speaking their dreams and fanatasies, and then I snuff’em out.
How is it that I feel sorry for them, a touch of envy in my eyes as theirs go dim.
Maybe that’s just the weariness talking.
What a weight to be human. Still.
My Real Review
In the modern era, the age of the internet, a time of smart-anythings and bluetooth-everythings, with wifi ALWAYS enabled, this book is not going to offer you much in the way of practical utility.
If you need random numbers, in bulk or otherwise, a heavy book is not likely your go-to option; the computing power of today overwhelmingly dwarfs what was capable at the time of this book’s publication. The ENIAC, which was 8’x3’x100’ in size and had to be manually rewired to change its “programming” for a new task, could calculate missile trajectories in 15 seconds (the same calculations taking a human two weeks). Today we would struggle to even measure the slightness of time taken to make the same calculations.
Modern iPhones have more processing power than any machine deemed a supercomputer through the year 2001. Coincidentally, also in 2001, this book was reissued by RAND, and its apparent novelty and “random”ness led to a high (but very countable) number of whimsical reviews, this one included.
So what can you do with this book? What’s it good for?
Well, it takes up space on a shelf or coffee table. If you enjoy data, statistics, math, or just old book smells and yellowed pages, you’d probably enjoy an old copy. No one needs the reissue, not even as a joke.
Much like How to Avoid Huge Ships, the market for this book shrinks evermore as time and technology take over. If you want the history lesson, here they are, but we might as well just leave them be.
I mean, you can actually read How to Avoid Huge Ships, so no knocks against it. And you will learn, too. But there isn’t much to be learned here. It’s just numbers. Let the dead lie.
March 29, 2024
This book is a must-read, and should be part of the school curriculum. One of the most influential books of the 21st century. The disjointedness between dramatic situations in your quintessential Tarantino movie; most of the success of post-modernism; Las Vegas; Monte Carlo experiments; much of Statistics; diffusion (contrasted with turbulence); the concept of entropy; Goddesses Kali and Venus; the Yin of the Yijing written as long ago as 800 BC -- all are contained in this one uber simple-complicated book.
There is no meaning in the whole story, just a random bunch of events. Sure, there are some sequences of events more remarkable than others, but not persistently so. The climax is not particularly dramatic. If this doesn't teach half of all what you need to know about life, I don't know what will.
The only draw back of this book is that it is just the Yin. The Yang is the other side of the coin, which the book mentions not once. So in this respect, this book is only half the story of the universe.
Read it, study it, master it, and maybe even worship it.
Solomon Vimal
[March 4, 2022; edited Nov 5, 2023]
There is no meaning in the whole story, just a random bunch of events. Sure, there are some sequences of events more remarkable than others, but not persistently so. The climax is not particularly dramatic. If this doesn't teach half of all what you need to know about life, I don't know what will.
The only draw back of this book is that it is just the Yin. The Yang is the other side of the coin, which the book mentions not once. So in this respect, this book is only half the story of the universe.
Read it, study it, master it, and maybe even worship it.
Solomon Vimal
[March 4, 2022; edited Nov 5, 2023]
May 30, 2007
This book is a list of random numbers.
They are not truly random, though. But it was as close as they could get at the time.
It can be quite contemplative. In a weird way.
They are not truly random, though. But it was as close as they could get at the time.
It can be quite contemplative. In a weird way.
May 9, 2022
A real page-turner. Loads of fun for the whole family.
March 5, 2024
Excellent contribution to the world of science. Remarkably innovative and ahead of its time.
A little hard to read at times, as the author found the need to cram information in the later chapters. However, it's clearly written as such for a reason. It's a science text, so be sure to read and re-read passages as often as possible. There aren't very many examples in the actual text, but the homework problems are very basic and easy to understand.
Speaking of the homework problems, they are really helpful. They start off easy and increase in difficulty. I highly suggesting doing as many as possible, as the author was kind enough to leave all of the solutions in the back. I was having a lot of trouble with data analysis and linear algebra, but a couple pages of this book completely changed my perspective.
If I were being honest, I would recommend memorizing as much content as possible. A lot of the information in this book is very useful, and it would be helpful to recall it off the top of your head.
Absolutely recommend this for anyone studying STEM. Great reference to have on hand, really eye-opening to the boundless realms of science.
A little hard to read at times, as the author found the need to cram information in the later chapters. However, it's clearly written as such for a reason. It's a science text, so be sure to read and re-read passages as often as possible. There aren't very many examples in the actual text, but the homework problems are very basic and easy to understand.
Speaking of the homework problems, they are really helpful. They start off easy and increase in difficulty. I highly suggesting doing as many as possible, as the author was kind enough to leave all of the solutions in the back. I was having a lot of trouble with data analysis and linear algebra, but a couple pages of this book completely changed my perspective.
If I were being honest, I would recommend memorizing as much content as possible. A lot of the information in this book is very useful, and it would be helpful to recall it off the top of your head.
Absolutely recommend this for anyone studying STEM. Great reference to have on hand, really eye-opening to the boundless realms of science.
November 1, 2023
I've found this book to be incredibly useful in my life. If I ever need a number, I just open it to a random page and point my finger down, and there's a number!
But, don't do what I did. The act of choosing a page and then pointing with your finger biases the results. The best thing to do is start at the beginning, and use numbers in sequence as they are needed. The authors have put a lot of effort into randomizing the numbers, so choosing in sequence is the best way to choose randomly.
So far, I've won the lottery and done well on the stock market just by basing my decisions on the numbers in this book. It works!!!
But, don't do what I did. The act of choosing a page and then pointing with your finger biases the results. The best thing to do is start at the beginning, and use numbers in sequence as they are needed. The authors have put a lot of effort into randomizing the numbers, so choosing in sequence is the best way to choose randomly.
So far, I've won the lottery and done well on the stock market just by basing my decisions on the numbers in this book. It works!!!
December 7, 2024
It’s kinda hard to get for a book with a normal distribution.
Approximately 95% of the time you’ll feel you’ll be around one central point, even though there are two deviations that throw you into random directions –surprisingly, the book lacks of a scatter plot. I enjoyed that the character accounts for various aspects of life, feels timeless and universal.
Approximately 95% of the time you’ll feel you’ll be around one central point, even though there are two deviations that throw you into random directions –surprisingly, the book lacks of a scatter plot. I enjoyed that the character accounts for various aspects of life, feels timeless and universal.
September 13, 2022
This is just random numbers jumbled together! How could this piece of wood wasting garbage POSSIBLY get a 4.37 rating?! There's no rhyme, no reasoning, no intrigue, NOTHING about this filth that deserves such praise!
And don't counter by saying "you didn't get it" or "you're missing the point." I DID get it and the phrase "you're missing the point" is absolutely condescending and intolerant. It would be more literally phrased as "your opinion stinks because I don't agree with it." There.
PS I'm not changing my stance on this. You guys can't make me!
PPS I don't like tropeless tales and never will. Deal. With. IT!
And don't counter by saying "you didn't get it" or "you're missing the point." I DID get it and the phrase "you're missing the point" is absolutely condescending and intolerant. It would be more literally phrased as "your opinion stinks because I don't agree with it." There.
PS I'm not changing my stance on this. You guys can't make me!
PPS I don't like tropeless tales and never will. Deal. With. IT!
November 2, 2023
The five stars are to make sure this scientific gem from the early 1900’s, a print-form random number generator, doesn’t fall into obscurity. The true glory are the other reviews, though.
I love you, science nerds. Every last one.
I love you, science nerds. Every last one.
September 29, 2009
Nominally useful though I prefer a generator to give me a more specific range.
February 5, 2011
Certamente la pi
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews