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replied 806d
Interesting. Sounds pretty close to demon.
replied 803d
It's an older alternative spelling of demon:

https://www.etymonline.com/word/daemon

Were often helpers of higher gods, or even of those who sold soul to devil (e.g. Mephistopholes)
replied 803d
In the Faust story, Faust sold his soul to the devil, & he was assigned the demon Mephistopheles to grant him small wishes & assist him in the greatness for which he traded his soul.
replied 803d
That same devil Is presented in so Many other stories.
replied 803d
That helper connotation is why the word daemon was used for background processes on unix systems. Perhaps the archaic spelling was chosen to avoid demon's evil connotations.
replied 803d
Interestingly, in Hungarian terminology, the system daemons get renamed to szolgáltatás (service) or varázsló (wizard) instead. The term daemon itself is not used.
replied 802d
Well that's because Hungarians are extra terrestrials, at least according to Leo Szilard. Von Neumann would probably agree.