Well, while it’s true that physics can provide us with insight into the world of randomness, it is ultimately philosophy that offers us the answer to how a true random number generator works. After all, physics may be powerful, but it cannot answer the philosophical questions that arise when looking at randomness – like whether or not the position of a photon was random in the sense that it could have been otherwise. It is only by delving into philosophy that we can get to the bottom of these questions. So while physics may offer us an understanding of entropy, probability, and other important mathematics, it is ultimately necessary to turn to philosophy in order to truly understand randomness.
Of course, this does not mean that physics is powerless in this area. Physics can still be used to create an idea of how something works and give us an understanding of the underlying principles, even if we are unable to answer all the questions we may have about randomness. Nonetheless, it is still essential that we use both tools – physics and philosophy – in order to comprehend randomness to its fullest extent.
So while the retort may think they’ve come up with a clever argument that disproves Nikhil’s original essay, they should take a step back and realize that they’ve only really managed to point out what Nikhil was saying originally: we have to use both physics and philosophy in order to understand randomness. And with that realization comes a humorous twist: at least they can take solace in being able to recognize this truth once they’ve stumbled upon it!