Assuming that all that can happen because some simple algorithm is being computed is like believing it will emerge 'out of nowhere', it is magical thinking.

No it isn't. I reject the categorization. I suggest that the far more common 'magical thinking' here occurs when people assume there is something special about thinking, discovery, adapatation or optimization in general just because it is a human doing it not an 'algorithm'. As though the human isn't itself just some messy inefficient algorithm.

Just like antimatter weapons, it does sound superficially possible. And indeed, just like antimatter weapons, sometimes such ideas turn out to be physically possible, but not economically realizable.

I reject the reference class.