It's not so simple as "what comes first?" (theory or experiment). What generally happens is that we stumble upon something, build a rudimentary but useful or in

It's not so simple as "what comes first?" (theory or experiment). What generally happens is that we stumble upon something, build a rudimentary but useful or interesting piece, then try to understand it, generalize it, and expand it (and usually succeed, with science). Both happen iteratively. Information theory came after the telegraph and early communication systems. However, we could not have built modern communication devices without Information theory (the insights and design principles). We build, then we theorize, then we build better, etc. it's not a simple procedure. Computers were developed similarly: there were all sorts of ad-hoc logical apparatus, we built boolean theory to explain it, and then we did all sorts of experiments trying to build computers. Their architects were largely mathematicians with very good ideas of mathematical design principles (and creative new mathematical ideas), not a group stringing together electrical elements and seeing what happens. The same goes for the development of ML/Deep learning, and many other technological marvels. Although "accidental" discoveries do happen, they happen from a methodical set, with knowledge, intuition, and good priors.