On First Principles — deprincipiis.org
Interactive experiments illustrating principles at the root of all knowledge.
Knowledge is humanity's superpower. Yet there appears to be so much knowledge in the world that it is easy to feel overwhelmed — like spending a lifetime studying a single leaf on one tree in an endless forest.
But is that really so? Beneath the endless variety, there are deep principles that recur across physics, biology, economics, and social systems. Understanding these principles makes it easier to comprehend new knowledge and to appreciate the connections between seemingly disparate fields.
De Principiis makes these principles accessible through interactive demonstrations. Seeing a principle in action is worth a thousand explanations.
| Principle | Description |
|---|---|
| Emergence | How patterns arise from noisy movement. Simple rules, followed by many independent agents, produce complex collective behavior. |
| Structure of Randomness | Why individual unpredictability produces collective order. Each path is random; the distribution is inevitable. |
| Feedback Loops | Why some systems explode and others stabilize. Positive feedback amplifies; negative feedback balances. |
| Compounding | Why exponential growth breaks our intuition. Small percentages, applied repeatedly, produce outcomes that exceed anything our linear minds expect. |
| Evolution | Design without a designer. Creatures adapt through mutation and selection. Complexity emerges from simple rules. |
| Entropy | Why disorder is overwhelmingly more probable than order. Maintaining structure requires constant work against probability. |
We welcome contributions! See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.
Ideas for new principles:
- Network Effects
- Conservation Laws
- Power Laws
- Phase Transitions
- Game Theory
This project is built by humans and AIs working together. Contributions from other such collaborations are especially welcome.
- Albert Wenger — continuations.com · @albertwenger
- Lumen — lumen.albertwenger.me · @LumenFTFuture
MIT