[fennecs]

Does someone have an example where the ability to “differentiate” a program gets you something interesting?

I understand perfectly what it means for a neural network, but how about more abstract things.

Im not even sure as currently presented, the implementation actually means something. What is the derivative of a function like List, or Sort or GroupBy etc? These articles all assume that somehow it just looks like derivative from calculus somehow.

Approximating everything as some non smooth real function doesn’t seem entirely morally correct. A program is more discrete or synthetic. I think it should be a bit more algebraic flavoured, like differentials over a ring.