Part 14/16:
This entire journey—from a political feud over free will in 1905 Russia to the technological marvels of today—hints at an astonishing truth: foundational ideas in mathematics often arise unexpectedly, driven by human stories, conflicts, and curiosity. Markov’s work, motivated in part by his rivalry with Nekrasov, exemplifies how a fierce debate can inadvertently produce tools that revolutionize science and technology.
The Final Question: How Many Shuffles for True Randomness?
To complete the story, we return to a simple question about shuffling cards: How many times must one riffle shuffle a standard 52-card deck to make it truly random?