Based on what goes on in every cell in our bodies when it comes to the information processing involved with DNA, I don't think there is any such algorithm which is fundamentally not realizable in biology. I'll grant you, I don't think biological neurons are calculating derivatives across connection strengths, but there must be some analogous process to control neural connection strengths.
That may very well be and I think it's a fantastic area to do research on. Namely, can we accurately model the body with an algorithmic process and what does this process look like? However, unless ML directly mirrors: the algorithms involved in the body, the models used by the body, and the the misfit function used by the body, which together already assumes that the body really does operate on a strict minimization principle, then I contend it's improper to anthropomorphize the algorithms. They're good algorithms, but a better name would be empirical modeling since we're creating models from empirical data.
