Random Patterns
Just because you don’t see the pattern doesn’t mean the data is random.
The word and concept of random is really quite tricky, just ask anyone in the field of statistics. The word itself seems to come from the idea of running with speed in a haphazard fashion. Imagine a pack of horses, bulls, or maybe lemmings. The physics version would be the flow of a turbulent river. But the math of chaos helps us understand that in most cases we simply can’t measure the current state well enough to predict the future, yet the big picture may be easier to see. The process of measurement, quantization, as in turning observation of nature into a number will always round off some element of detail. Yet as random as the river path is, it is no doubt, headed to the sea.
If you like digging deeper into the history words enjoy some more origin details I found from etymonline or the blogger mashedradish.
-PFA