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"Equations and algorithms can't generate force or protect metal from corrosion or convert chemical reagents into medicine. They have no corporeal existence. The
by sgt101 12y ago
"Equations and algorithms can't generate force or protect metal from corrosion or convert chemical reagents into medicine. They have no corporeal existence. There is no computation you can do that will get the golf ball into the hole."
Algorithms can; they can create a decision to apply a paint or to move an actuator in a particular way, or to remove access to a file or to remove a file completely. This is the way that algorithms can be materialized in the same way that a chemical process described as a series of instructions for building machines and using them to process base materials can be materialized.
- AnthonyMouse 12y agoOnly if the machine is doing something in excess of computation. Then you have a machine that applies paint in a particular way. The algorithm itself isn't the thing you're patenting anymore. Whereas "removing access to a file" is still nothing but computation. The machine in that context is fully abstract. Any general purpose computer of any design can do it. So the algorithm itself should be unpatentable and the machine is a general purpose computer that exists in the prior art, which leaves nothing to patent.