"Random had a perfectly good meaning before the computer scientists started tying it to tables or seed generators."

They really didn't have much choice, language being the messy thing that it is - they needed something precisely definable and repeatable ... after all when you start using computer simulation, you need to lock down quite precisely just what you are doing.... I remember someone scoffing at me that nowadays we didn't need to actually do any working out what is going on in the real world to design wind instruments, that we didn't need to worry about concepts like Helmholtz resonance etc. Just grab a 'good' computer simulation ..... that's actually so arrogantly ignorant of what computer simulations really do (and how poorly they really reflect The Real World), as to be laughable....

I remember someone getting frustrated with a traffic flow simulation for a multi-lane highway, where the real measured figures were annoyingly different from the best 'simulation that could be produce,

Well it would have been ok if the road had been straight, you see - but when multi lane roads go around corners, the inner and outer paths are different lengths.... Those who know how LP records and CD/DVDs work can start laughing now.... :-)