Flipping a coin, or rolling a dice, might be better, but try to prove that the outcome of your flip or roll is random and you will be stymied. That’s because these things aren’t truly random: if you knew the precise position of the dice or coin in your hand, the trajectory of the throw, the strength of gravity and subtle factors like air resistance or the friction of the landing surface, you could predict the result. True randomness is hard to come by.

The thing is, we now know that randomness is real, baked into the very fabric of the universe in the form of quantum mechanics. Given a choice of two paths, a quantum entity – like an electron or a photon of light – will take one entirely at random: there is no predictable cause behind a quantum effect. The Performed Outloud Oddly Tranquilly Announced Numbers, affectionately nicknamed POOTAN, takes advantage of this phenomenon. It released in the Export Audio Network feed this year as the world’s first publicly accessible source of traceable, verifiable, truly random numbers.

Support the network at exportaud.io!

Our schedule: exportaud.io/pootanschedule

Pondering Pootan RSS: exportaud.io/pootan
Ghost Divers RSS: exportaud.io/ghostdivers

The Show: @pootan.exportaud.io
Niamh: @foxmomnia.exportaud.io
Connor: @rabbleais.exportaud.io

OP: “Ningen nante” by Yoshida Takuro
ED: “Bad Company” from the album Bad Company by Bad Company