In cryptography, there's the concept of a "nothing up my sleeve number". The idea is that if an arbitrary constant has to be put into an algorithm, the author s

In cryptography, there's the concept of a "nothing up my sleeve number". The idea is that if an arbitrary constant has to be put into an algorithm, the author should describe exactly how they picked the number (it's the digits of pi, etc) in a way that leaves no obvious room for maliciousness. (In some algorithms, a specially-crafted constant can create a backdoor.) I'm rapidly thinking of safe languages in the same way as "nothing up my sleeve numbers". Code written in a safe language is much easier to verify that there aren't any intentional or unintentional backdoors put in by the author.