A physicist from Ottawa has recently used lasers to generate large sets of random numbers. According to the Montreal Gazette, Ben Sussman is a physicist who works on quantum technologies at the National Research Council. Before this, all random numbers were generated through computer algorithms that only gave the appearance of being random. In reality, no computing processor can generate a completely random number; it must be given a set of instructions in order to produce one.
The main difference between “appearing” random and being truly random is that there is no way for hackers to decode the truly random numbers. Computer algorithms can be easily used to decode a set of encrypted numbers, but with this new innovation, it won’t be possible to decrypt a set of numbers if there is no way of knowing how it is produced. The way that Ben Sussman produces these numbers is through lasers. Using a pulse of laser no longer than trillionths of a second, the light shines through a diamond, and on its way out it changes in a “special way.” The light interacts with quantum vacuum fluctuations, which change the energy of the light in unpredictable ways. Since quantum mechanics is based around the notion that nothing within the realm of the “extremely small” can be calculated with absolute certainty, it creates something that has no cause and effect relationship. With this new technology, Ben Sussman suggests that it can be used to make encrypted data nearly impossible to bypass, and can make the lottery truly random and completely fair.