Abstract:
In this paper we briefly discuss various forms of randomness that physics, mathematics and computing
have proposed. Classical and quantum physics view randomness, that we describe as unpredictability in
the intended theory, in different ways. Computing allows to discuss this issue in an abstract, yet very expressive
mean, which yields useful hierarchies of randomness and may help to relate its various forms. We introduce then
the open field of biological randomness—its peculiar nature and role in ontogenesis and in evolutionary dynamics
(phylogenesis). Randomness does not oppose, but contributes to the organisms’ and populations’ structural
stability, in contexts where the notion of probability, as measurement of randomness, is not well defined.