ABSTRACT
For most of Western history, chance has been a villain. In classic Roman civilization, chance was personified by Fortuna, goddess of cruel fate, with her spinning wheel of luck. Opposed to her sat Minerva, goddess of wisdom and understanding. Only the desperate would pray to Fortuna, while everyone implored Minerva for aid. Certainly science was the domain of Minerva, a realm with no useful role for Fortuna to play. The Good King was an autocrat, but he did have a number of obligations to His people. Among these obligations, King Markov agreed to visit each island in His kingdom from time to time. The algorithm will still work in this way, even if people allow the king to be equally likely to propose a move to any island from any island, not just among neighbors. The precise algorithm King Markov used is a special case of the general Metropolis algorithm from the real world.
