Sorry, I left something out. The authors mention earlier in the lecture that > [The algorithm (Consistent Hashing)] has real applications [and] gave birth to A

Sorry, I left something out. The authors mention earlier in the lecture that > [The algorithm (Consistent Hashing)] has real applications [and] gave birth to Akamai, which to this day is a major player in the Internet. [...] (Quantitatively, Akamai serves 10-30% of all internet traffic, and has a market cap ≈ $19B.) This makes the rejection notice so funny.