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@dougmerritt that's a great quote, I'm going to log that one to memory. Quantum seems to be the last bastion for non determinism and we'll see if that even holds up over time.

@demofox
Quantum nondeterminism has been established so thoroughly, with so many possible loopholes investigated, that it would take a real genius to even find remaining loopholes to check.

Which might still happen; I just wouldn't bet money on it.

@TomF @demofox
Heh...you just can never resist, can you.

I wonder what von Neumann would have said to that!

@dougmerritt @demofox He would have said that was my least significant "bit".

@TomF @demofox
Ok, I'll bite. What's your most significant "bit"? :)

@mbr @dougmerritt so true hehe

@demofox @dougmerritt To expand. With pseudo-random (or LDS) you have a set of known properties. And the fact you can repeat exactly the same sequences (or subset thereof) is of great value. Real random is a niche thing that's only has limited usefulness in "security" IMHO.

@mbr @demofox
Yes, correct, repeatability is extremely handy, and pseudo-random number generators are often a great thing to use -- except that your phrasing might give someone the idea that there's never any point in using true hardware randomness collection -- yet although niche, that sort of thing is very important in some niches.

(I just collected some hardware randomness within the last week, although really that's neither here nor there)

Randomness is a deep subject that very few technical people really understand. (Present company presumably excepted out of respect and politeness)

Anyway I hope it was clear that I wasn't criticizing, it was just an opportunity to share a quote that I really like.

@dougmerritt @mbr definitely clear. It's a great quote :)