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What If Finding the Answer to Life’s Thorny Problems Was Like Having a Random Number Generator?

The Random Number Generator…
I was logging on to my online bank account earlier in the week — I have one of those little gadgets that generates a random number I have to enter — when it occurred to me what a wonderful thing it was that the gadget always works.
I don’t know how it works exactly; whether the numbers are stored on the machine, whether it is getting them from somewhere in the ‘cloud’, or whether it really is a random number generator (and then how does my bank know it’s the right number to let me in with — more questions!)
The point, though, is that the number comes from somewhere, somewhere that doesn’t require ‘me’, Cathy to do anything. Nowhere in the process am I having to remember long lists of six-digit numbers and then pull up the 24th (or whatever) rotation so that “I” can log into my bank. I press a button, something happens, and I have access. I don’t need to think about it between log-in sessions, it just works whenever I need it.
Future Wisdom…
As I marvelled at this wonder of technology, it struck me what a great illustration this was of how we arrive at solutions for problems we might face in the future — problems that we…