Randomness is the lack of definite patterns or predictability in information, applicable across mathematics, physics, biology, and statistics where individual events are unpredictable but follow known probability distributions. The concept has evolved from ancient divination practices through rigorous mathematical formalization in the 16th-20th centuries, becoming essential to modern computational science and various practical applications. Common misconceptions about randomness include the gambler's fallacy and the belief that past outcomes influence future ones in truly random processes.

• •True randomness is impossible for large structures according to Ramsey theory, and researchers focus on studying degrees of randomness instead
• •In quantum mechanics, microscopic phenomena are objectively random in ways that cannot be predicted despite controlling all parameters
• •Modern evolutionary theory attributes life's diversity to random genetic mutations combined with non-random natural selection
• •Random selection mechanisms are used for fairness and lack of bias in politics, games, sports, medicine, and legal systems
• •Common fallacies about randomness include the belief that numbers are 'due' to appear or that past outcomes affect future ones in independent events

Theodore Motzkin, Cristian S. Calude, John Venn, Andrey Kolmogorov, Per Martin-Löf, Ray Solomonoff, Gregory Chaitin, Yongge Wang, Paul Erdős, Alfréd Rényi, Ancient Athens, Pompei, National Basketball Association, Harvard University