Randomness is an under-appreciated property of a political process

"Leaving anything up to “chance” may seem risky when the fate of a nation is on the line, but in this case it is absolutely essential to protect against capture by political parties and other unexpected biases toward the status quo. Computer systems utilize randomness in many different algorithms to protect against worst-case outcomes, over-optimization, and getting stuck in local minimums.

Bitcoin uses randomness to reach consensus on who gets to extend the ledger, which protects the digital currency from censorship. Games use randomness with fractals to create more realistic nature-like environments. Nature uses randomness to create diversity necessary for evolution and adaptation to changing environments. Without the introduction of randomness life would not be possible, but one would hardly call the resulting structures of life random.

While derived from apparent randomness, life has an order that leads many to believe in an intelligent creator. Utilizing randomness acknowledges that even the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry. No matter how wise a community thinks it can organize there is a chance that it could be wrong, and randomness ensures a variety of minority opinions have an opportunity to be expressed over time."

Author: Daniel Larimer

Source: https://moreequalanimals.com/assets/MoreEqualAnimals-1.15.2021.pdf