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What is algebraic about algebraic effects?

Compositionality can be much more than just an interface between two objects or functions. It can be a set of laws.

In abstract algebra, structure is often where you take some math object 𝛂 (like an int, or matrix), and you pair it with an operation, (like + or *), and you say: integers can be composed with op `+`, but we can ALSO infer properties in these combos--or laws. There’s a simple way to understand CRDTs: It leverages algebra to unmix the inevitable mixing of data when syncing over an unreliable network. So by constraining the power of what our code can do, we can ensure the system has specific desirable properties that achieve the goal of syncing data over an unreliable network.

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