So, I´m starting to think that the guy, who said that the "hole-digging critters" were bugs in a computer program, was right!
If that is so, a "way to track this development" would be version control software. For example, Subversion:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subversion_(software)
The same guy said that a "seed" was slang for "initial setting of some random number generating machine". Well, Thomas gave us a hint - Vernam - and googling that lead me to this encryption related article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-time_pad
The Article Wrote:The one-time pad is derived from the Vernam cipher