Generating a random number, a truly unpredictable number, is no small feat for a computer. And random numbers are super important for cryptology and security. When you've entrusted your bits to a computer the only thing stopping another computer from accessing it is a random number it cant guess fast enough. 

One of the best ways to create this unpredictable randomness is to supply an unpredictable input from the real world. Enter, Lavarand. Patented in the 90's but now in use as a backup system by Cloudflare. A wall of lava lamps captured on a video feed is input to the algorithm thereby generating a random number no other computer can calculate without the lava lamp feed and the algorithm. I know very little about all of this stuff but I happily applaud the ingenuity.

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