Ideas become a material force when they grip the mind of the masses.
But algorithms / ideas are only real to the degree they’re implemented, to the degree they’re actually running in some physical substrate (i.e. computation).
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Link to originalIt is in the nature of a hypothesis when once a man has conceived it, that it assimilates everything to itself, as proper nourishment, and from the first moment of your begetting it, it generally grows stronger by everything you see, hear or understand. - Laurence Sterne