Editing 1210: I'm So Random

{{comic
| number    = 1210
| date      = May 10, 2013
| title     = I'm So Random
| image     = im so random.png
| titletext = In retrospect, it's weird that as a kid I thought completely random outbursts made me seem interesting, given that from an information theory point of view, lexical white noise is just about the opposite of interesting by definition.
}}

==Explanation==
A child [[Hairy]] walks up to [[Black Hat]], utters a nonsense phrase ("monkey tacos"), and then proclaims that he is "so random". This is a fairly common modern phenomenon in which children (hopefully ''only'' children) make "random" statements, and somehow imagine themselves to be funny and interesting because of this. Black Hat, never one to hesitate over bringing someone down, replies that he is also random. He then proves this by pouring forth a torrential stream of truly random numbers that overcomes poor Hairy. Black Hat then resumes his posture at the computer, as if nothing has happened.

It is true that when brilliant and creative people speak passionately about a subject, they can make mental leaps and changes of context that might seem bewildering to an outsider. The conversation may even seem to be "random". However, simply vocalizing nonsense is not analogous, or even desirable; it is more likely a character trait of someone who is immature or has difficulty in following or adding to a normal human conversation.

Black Hat's "random" numbers are actually quoted from [http://oeis.org/A002205 the first lines] of ''{{w|A Million Random Digits with 100,000 Normal Deviates}}'' making it both "officially random", but also essentially not. This book is also referenced in [[1751: Movie Folder]]. See also: [[221: Random Number]].

A side note is that "Monkey tacos" is a phrase that contains two trochees. A {{w|trochee}} is a {{w|Foot_(prosody)|metric foot}} with one stressed beat and one unstressed beat; it may be a reference to or an unconscious allusion to [[856: Trochee Fixation]].

The title text deals with the connotations of the word "interesting" in different contexts. On one hand, children may be easily amused by behavior that lies outside of conventional social norms and defies expectations. Children may attempt to add whimsy to a situation they perceive as dull by interjecting words that have no significant meaning or relationship whatsoever to anything around them, merely to make things seem different and therefore "interesting" (at least to them.) There is some merit to this perspective: human social norms developed largely as a way to make social interaction more predictable and manageable and correspondingly ''less'' interesting, to free up our attention for other, more pressing matters. Someone who is indeed behaving "randomly" often ''does'' command interest and attention, if only because their unpredictability makes them potentially dangerous. However, to a child, social conventions may seem arbitrary and needlessly inhibitive, and they will often test the limits of such conventions by deliberately acting in violation of them and seeing what happens. "Random outbursts" of nonsense phrases are a fairly harmless way of doing this, and often do not incur sharply negative responses beyond annoyance (Hairy's experience being an exception), so children (including Randall in his youth) might do this very frequently until they mature out of it.

However, "interesting" in information theory is quite a different matter. {{w|Information theory}} is "[https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B0080430767006082 the mathematical treatment of the concepts, parameters and rules governing the transmission of messages through communication systems.]" It is therefore very concerned with the meanings of the words and phrases people use to convey information, and it would regard something as "interesting" if it exhibited a notably consistent and predictable pattern that pointed towards greater significance. As such, "the opposite of interesting" would be expressions that hold no meaning, convey no information, and do not indicate any recognizable patterns or significance - such as the "random outbursts" that Randall once believed made him seem interesting as a child.

He characterizes these interjections of random words as "lexical white noise," "lexical" meaning "[https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/lexical relating to words or vocabulary of a language.]" {{w|White noise}} is essentially random sound waves which, taken en masse, blend into audio static that takes on a macroscopically uniform sound experience despite their random nature. This can be used in some sleep or relaxation therapies, which foils well with the random assault experienced in the comic. There are also other {{w|colors of noise}}, and yes, [[915: Connoisseur|people have strong opinions as to which one is better]].

==Transcript==
:[Black Hat is sitting in an office chair at a desk when Hairy runs up behind him with his arms raised up.]
:Hairy: ''Monkey tacos!'' 
:Hairy: I'm so random.

:[A frame-less panel pans to Black Hat and his desk, showing there is a computer on his desk and that he is actually typing on a keyboard in front of him on a lowered shelf.]
:Black Hat: Yeah, me too.

:[Black Hat swivels his chair around (as shown with a gray curved line beneath the chair at his feet) to face Hairy. He then emits from his mouth a massive speech bubble filled with random numbers in gray. This torrent of random numbers knocks Hairy to the ground as he shields his face with one arm while the other grasps for the floor to cushion his fall (it is notable that speech bubbles are not normally used in xkcd.) The numbers themselves are written deliberately haphazardly and in varying sizes, which makes it difficult to read them in any consistent manner; however, for reasons explained above, there is actually some order, and using that order they would appear like this:]
:Black Hat: 
<font color="gray">
::::&nbsp;100973253376520135863467354
::::&nbsp;876809590911739292749453754
::::&nbsp;204805648947429624805240372
::::&nbsp;063610402002291665084226895
::::&nbsp;319645093032320902560159533
::::&nbsp;476435080336069901902529093
</font>

:[With Hairy gone, Black Hat has turned back and resumed working at his computer.]

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]