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First Principles is the podcast that deconstructs the complex, invisible systems shaping our modern world. Ever wonder how a social media algorithm works, how AI really thinks, or how GPS knows your e... more
FAQs about First Principles:How many episodes does First Principles have?The podcast currently has 63 episodes available.
May 22, 2026EP63 - The Ghost in the Machine: How Video Compression and Codecs Hack Your EyesWe stream billions of hours of high-definition video every day, assuming the internet is a vast pipe of moving pictures. It isn't. Discover the clever mathematics and biological hacks that allow us to squeeze reality into a wire, revealing why the movies you watch are actually elaborate optical illusions....more22minPlay
May 15, 2026EP62 - The Anti-Noise Paradox: How We Engineer SilenceWhen you turn on noise-canceling headphones, the world doesn't just get quieter; it feels like the air itself vanishes. But the physics behind this silence is counter-intuitive. In this episode, we deconstruct the high-speed race against the speed of sound, revealing how adding more noise to a chaotic environment is the only way to find true peace....more22minPlay
May 08, 2026EP61 - Ouroboros and the Synthetic Data Paradox in AI Model CollapseWe assume Artificial Intelligence will grow indefinitely smarter, feeding on an endless buffet of digital information. But what happens when the internet runs out of human-made data and AI begins to consume its own output, leading to a catastrophic statistical phenomenon known as Model Collapse?...more24minPlay
May 01, 2026EP60 - AlphaFold and the Origami of Life: Solving Biology’s Grandest PuzzleFor fifty years, biology faced a paradox that stumped the world’s brightest minds: how does a simple one-dimensional string of genetic code instantly fold into a complex three-dimensional machine? This episode deconstructs AlphaFold, the AI breakthrough that cracked the code, revealing how geometric deep learning and evolutionary history are rewriting the future of medicine....more25minPlay
April 24, 2026EP59 - The Universal Eye: How AI Learned to SeeWe treat it as magic when an AI looks at a photo of a refrigerator and invents a recipe, but how does a text model process light? This episode deconstructs the Vision Transformer and the shared latent space, revealing how engineers taught language models to read reality itself....more17minPlay
April 17, 2026EP58 - Racing the Light: Deconstructing High-Frequency Trading and the Physical LimitWe often imagine the stock market as a chaotic floor of shouting traders, but the real action happens in silent server farms at speeds closer to the speed of light than human reaction time. This episode dismantles the black box of High-Frequency Trading to reveal how fiber optics, microwave beams, and customized silicon are waging a war against the absolute boundaries of physics....more29minPlay
April 10, 2026EP57 - The Density of Air Deconstructing 5G and the Physics of ConnectivityWe take the invisible internet for granted, but the radio spectrum is a finite resource that is running out of space. This episode deconstructs 5G not just as a speed upgrade, but as a fundamental reimagining of physics, exploring how engineers learned to bend waves and carve the air to keep the world connected....more21minPlay
April 03, 2026EP56 - The Amnesiac Genius: How Retrieval Augmented Generation Anchors AI in RealityGenerative AI can write sonnets and code, but it often invents facts and hallucinates answers. We deconstruct Retrieval Augmented Generation, or RAG, the architecture that solves this problem by separating the reasoning engine from the memory bank, transforming a creative fabulist into a reliable expert....more25minPlay
March 27, 2026EP55 - The Ghost With Hands: How Agentic AI Escapes the Chatbot BoxWe’ve grown used to AI that can write poetry or summarize history, but these systems have always been trapped behind a glass wall, unable to actually touch the world. This episode deconstructs the architecture of "Agentic AI," revealing how engineers are giving language models hands, eyes, and the terrifyingly complex ability to plan, transforming them from passive talkers into active doers....more26minPlay
March 20, 2026EP54 - The Pause Before The Answer: How System 2 AI Learned to ReasonWe are witnessing a fundamental shift in artificial intelligence, moving from models that instantly mimic human speech to ones that deliberately ponder complex problems. This episode deconstructs the rise of "reasoning models," exploring how the simple act of slowing down and utilizing "chain of thought" processing is unlocking a new era of cognitive computing....more25minPlay
FAQs about First Principles:How many episodes does First Principles have?The podcast currently has 63 episodes available.