Ross Ashby long ago pointed out that no system (neither computer nor organism) can produce anything new unless the system contains some source of the random. In the computer, this will be a random-number generator which will ensure that the “seeking,” trial-and-error moves of the machine will ultimately cover all the possibilities of the set to be explored.
In other words, all innovative, creative systems are (…) divergent; conversely, sequences of events that are predictable are, ipso facto, convergent.
— Bateson, Gregory. Mind and Nature. A Necessary Unity. New York: E. P. Dutton, 1979.
