Comment by rtheunissen

What if some future technology or material breakthrough provides a sort of self-adjusting liquid memory that provides true constant time access to any address? I'm not being entirely serious of course, as I dream about sequences across nodes on planets through other solar systems.

Focusing on fundamental algorithms in the abstract provides a fun playground to explore and learn and teach, before you learn about memory hierarchy when all your hopes and dreams of the ideal data structure fades away.

I don't think there is any time wasted exploring the fundamental. Who knows what technology might see renaissance in the future as hardware continues to change. Analog computers, binary search trees, who knows.

It's fun to dream and take a break from reality sometimes, digging deep into a simple concept with a rich design space and complex analysis.