The document discusses 'modern' algorithms and data structures, focusing on Bloom filters and Merkle trees. Bloom filters are space-efficient probabilistic data structures used to test set membership with the possibility of false positives but no false negatives, and they are implemented in systems like Cassandra to optimize I/O operations. Merkle trees, on the other hand, are hash trees that ensure the integrity of data blocks exchanged in peer-to-peer networks, assisting in minimizing data transfer during consistency checks.