I'm guessing since the article you linked to is a scientist they don't care about security and just need a prng that gives them the same random-looking values every time they run their code. but no one who needs secure random values should _ever_ use the standard prng in languages like javascript or python. it doesn't matter _what_ you seed it with, it's trivial to calculate the seed given a certain number of outputs. use a csprng library or read from /dev/urandom
The folks who are likely to use 42 as a seed are significantly less likely vibecode. I gave a Douglas Adam’s-themed keynote on the economic impact of AI, and only 20% of the audience got my jokes.
I'm guessing since the article you linked to is a scientist they don't care about security and just need a prng that gives them the same random-looking values every time they run their code. but no one who needs secure random values should _ever_ use the standard prng in languages like javascript or python. it doesn't matter _what_ you seed it with, it's trivial to calculate the seed given a certain number of outputs. use a csprng library or read from /dev/urandom
The folks who are likely to use 42 as a seed are significantly less likely vibecode. I gave a Douglas Adam’s-themed keynote on the economic impact of AI, and only 20% of the audience got my jokes.
Although somehow 42 has made its way into AI training as the default for most vibe coded apps….