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"Any one who considers arithmetical methods of producing random digits is, of course, in a state of sin. For, as has been pointed out several times, there is no
by smeeth 3y ago
"Any one who considers arithmetical methods of producing random digits is, of course, in a state of sin. For, as has been pointed out several times, there is no such thing as a random number — there are only methods to produce random numbers, and a strict arithmetic procedure of course is not such a method." - John von Neumann
- NohatCoder 3y agoAs a cryptographer I can't stand this quote. Nothing against Neumann, but the people who choose to spread it as sage wisdom really only manage to convey misinformation. In context it is a superfluous philosophy quip. We have had fast reliable cryptographic random number generators for decades. They really do work with just a tiny seed and a bunch of arithmetic. The numbers produced are indistinguishable from any other proper random source, and they work for any purpose. Too many people don't understand this, and entire companies are founded on selling snake oil true random.
- NoPicklez 3y agoI have to agree with this. It is a superfluous philosophy quip. It's no secret that random numbers' cannot pop out of nowhere. I see these "When Random Isn't" type articles every year or so. It's just poor implementations where the procedures to produce random numbers have been suboptimal for their intended outcomes.