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14:28Superpositions, Sudoku, the Wave Function Collapse algorithm.
764K views • 6 years ago
Martin Donald
Martin Donald explains the Wave Function Collapse algorithm using Sudoku-like constraint solving and shows how he implemented it with Blender and Godot. It links demos and reference articles.
17:31How Quantum Computers Break Encryption | Shor's Algorithm Explained
3.4M views • 7 years ago
minutephysics
MinutePhysics explains Shor's algorithm, showing how a quantum computer factors large integers by finding the period of a number modulo N. It walks through the modular arithmetic and number theory that give the exponential speedup over classical factoring, and why this threatens encryption.
16:36Hacking at Quantum Speed with Shor's Algorithm | Infinite Series
238K views • 9 years ago
PBS Infinite Series
PBS Infinite Series explains how Shor's algorithm lets a quantum computer break RSA encryption, building on earlier episodes about cryptography and the math of quantum computers. It works through the idea step by step.
3:38The Shortest-Splitline Algorithm: a Gerrymandering Solution [Bonus Video]
692K views • 15 years ago
CGP Grey
A short CGP Grey bonus video explaining the shortest-splitline algorithm, which draws electoral districts by repeatedly splitting a state along its shortest dividing line while balancing population. It is offered as a neutral, algorithmic fix for gerrymandering.
9:27Pentagons Are Terrible at One Thing
20.6M views • 6 years ago
CGP Grey
A CGP Grey video about why pentagons are bad at tiling and why hexagons are so special, in his usual playful style. It touches on honeycombs and tiling in nature.
5:50The city of golf carts
1.8M views • 7 years ago
Tom Scott
Tom Scott visits Peachtree City, Georgia, which has about a hundred miles of dedicated golf cart paths that serve as an alternative to driving. He explains how the network works as a quasi-transit system that keeps cars off the roads.
42:3630 Weird Chess Algorithms: Elo World
965K views • 7 years ago
suckerpinch
Tom Scott-style absurdist tour by Tom7 of SIGBOVIK chess projects: a tournament of 30 weird chess algorithms used to rate a color- and piece-blind chess program. Topics include mirrors, arithmetic encoding, perverted game tree search and a diluted Stockfish.
6:43Explained: "Go Fast" UFO Video - Not Low and Not Fast - Like a Balloon!
156K views • 7 years ago
Mick West
Mick West analyzes the Navy "Go Fast" UFO footage and shows with simple trigonometry and the data overlay that the object is slow and high up, consistent with a balloon. He explains how parallax makes it look fast and argues the original TV claims were wrong.
26:48Algorithmic Redistricting: Elections made-to-order
584K views • 5 years ago
AlphaPhoenix
AlphaPhoenix uses Monte Carlo simulation and annealing-style methods to draw North Carolina congressional district maps, both gerrymandered and fair. He focuses on the fascinating computational problem rather than the politics.
5:48Most Cities Got More Democratic. This One Didn't.
6.1M views • 14 years ago
CGP Grey
CGP Grey explains the City of London's unusual governance, including the Lord Mayor, guilds, and how it differs from the rest of London.
15:13The Golden Ratio (why it is so irrational) - Numberphile
3.9M views • 8 years ago
Numberphile
Numberphile's Ben Sparks shows why the golden ratio is the most irrational number, using seeds, continued fractions and rational approximations. He also explains why plants use it for spacing leaves and seeds.
18:57Manipulating the YouTube Algorithm - (Part 1/3) Smarter Every Day 213
2.7M views • 7 years ago
SmarterEveryDay
Part 1 of Smarter Every Day's three-part series on manipulating the YouTube algorithm. It features Renee DiResta and examples of how social media platforms can be manipulated.
28:23The Fast Fourier Transform (FFT): Most Ingenious Algorithm Ever?
2.3M views • 5 years ago
Reducible
Reducible's visual walkthrough of the Fast Fourier Transform, motivated by polynomial multiplication. It shows how the FFT's key ideas can be discovered by asking the right questions.
34:00Math's Fundamental Flaw
30.8M views • 5 years ago
Veritasium
Veritasium's explainer on Godel's incompleteness theorems and the limits of mathematical proof, tracing set theory, Hilbert's program and the road to Turing and modern computing.
Topic match · Computability & complexity theory
6:24You Need a Theme, Not a Goal
5.5M views • 6 years ago
CGP Grey
CGP Grey argues for picking a theme for the year or season instead of setting goals or new year's resolutions. He explains how a theme gives direction without a pass/fail target.
24:46Breakdown of the Pentagon UFO videos with Mick West
366K views • 6 years ago
Cool Worlds
Astronomer David Kipping of Cool Worlds talks with Mick West to break down the three declassified Pentagon UFO videos. They explain the footage through camera artifacts, glare, and perspective effects.
8:09Google Earth’s Incredible 3D Imagery, Explained
3.1M views • 9 years ago
Nat and Friends
A short explainer from Nat and Friends on where Google Earth's 3D imagery comes from, how it is stitched together, and how often it is updated. It describes aircraft carrying camera rigs and photogrammetry that turns the photos into 3D models.
27:12How They Caught The Golden State Killer
10.1M views • 5 years ago
Veritasium
Veritasium explains how investigators caught the Golden State Killer using forensic genealogy, matching crime scene DNA to distant relatives in public genealogy databases. It also covers the privacy implications of DNA databases.
9:41How Steve Jobs got the ideas of GUI from XEROX
272K views • 12 years ago
Ringo Pebam
A short video telling how Xerox PARC invented the graphical user interface and how Steve Jobs's 1979 visit influenced Apple's Lisa.
8:47Cloaking
238K views • 15 years ago
Google Search Central
Matt Cutts of Google explains what cloaking is: serving different content to search engine crawlers than to users. He covers why it violates Google's webmaster guidelines.
Topic match · Product, marketing & sales
26:33The Most Underrated Algorithm
10.8M views • 4 years ago
Veritasium
Veritasium tells the story of the Fast Fourier Transform, from its use in detecting nuclear tests to Cold War politics, and how it could have changed the arms race. It includes a short, intuitive explanation of what the Fourier transform does.
20:08Fast Inverse Square Root — A Quake III Algorithm
6M views • 5 years ago
Nemean
A walkthrough of the Quake III fast inverse square root, explaining where the constant 0x5f3759df comes from. It covers IEEE 754 floats, the bit hack that approximates a logarithm, and a Newton's method refinement.
7:42Extremely Large Numbers 1 - Introduction
20K views • 11 years ago
Giroux Studios
The first video in a series on extremely large numbers, introducing the topic with examples. Later parts go deep into the fast-growing hierarchy.
Topic match · Computability & complexity theory
11:02How to design an actually good toaster with lessons from the 1940's
851K views • 6 years ago
Technology Connections
Technology Connections praises a 1940s-50s Sunbeam toaster and explains what makes a toaster well designed, drawing on a vintage Sunbeam video.
13:03Intelligence and Stupidity: The Orthogonality Thesis
710K views • 8 years ago
Robert Miles AI Safety
Robert Miles explains the orthogonality thesis: how an agent can be highly intelligent while pursuing goals that seem stupid or alien to humans. He separates intelligence from goals and touches on the stamp-collector example.
10:45The Car-Replacement Bicycle (the bakfiets)
1.6M views • 4 years ago
Not Just Bikes
Not Just Bikes explains how an electric bakfiets (Dutch cargo bike) replaced the family car after a move back to Canada, saving thousands of dollars. It shows how much it can carry, including kids and groceries.
15:49The Trains that Subsidize Suburbia - GO Transit Commuter Rail
1.3M views • 5 years ago
Not Just Bikes
Not Just Bikes examines Toronto's GO Transit commuter rail, arguing it is a costly system with park-and-ride stations and rush-hour-only service that subsidizes car-dependent suburbs.
12:35The Mathematics of Quantum Computers | Infinite Series
718K views • 9 years ago
PBS Infinite Series
A PBS Infinite Series episode explaining the mathematics of quantum computers, including how qubits store complex numbers and how quantum computation differs from classical computation. Hosted by Kelsey Houston-Edwards.
Topic match · Quantum computing
12:41My Video Got 2 Companies Shut Down! (And even worse negative ion products)
5.6M views • 5 years ago
The Thought Emporium
The Thought Emporium follows up on his earlier video showing negative ion products are radioactive, reporting that Amazon pulled listings and companies shut down. He tests more radioactive quack products with a Geiger counter and cloud chamber.
13:04VACNET Anti-cheat
574K views • 8 years ago
3kliksphilip
3kliksphilip summarizes Valve's GDC talk on VACNet, a deep-learning system that flags CS:GO cheaters and feeds the Overwatch review queue. It covers Trust Factor, VAC, and how the data is collected and analyzed.
Topic match · Machine learning & deep learning
28:47Someone improved my code by 40,832,277,770%
3.1M views • 4 years ago
Stand-up Maths
Matt Parker follows the community effort to speed up his slow Wordle-solving code, which ended up running hundreds of millions of times faster. He walks through the techniques contributors used.
Topic match · Algorithms & data structures
17:05How Physicists Created a Holographic Wormhole in a Quantum Computer
2.4M views • 3 years ago
Quanta Magazine
Quanta Magazine explains the 2022 experiment that claimed to create a holographic wormhole on Google's quantum computer. The description now notes that a later independent analysis questioned whether any wormhole was created.
Topic match · Quantum computing
11:47We Were Right! Real Inner Misalignment
271K views • 5 years ago
Robert Miles AI Safety
Robert Miles covers a paper where researchers ran real versions of his earlier mesa-optimizer thought experiments. They show inner misalignment, where an AI learns the wrong goal in training and misbehaves when deployed.
Topic match · Machine learning & deep learning
29:35The IOU Machine: How Currency Is Created | Hidden Secrets of Money Ep. 4
11.1M views • 13 years ago
GoldSilver
Episode 4 of Mike Maloney's Hidden Secrets of Money, explaining how currency is created through a chain of IOUs among the Treasury, banks and the Federal Reserve. It covers bonds, Fed checks, debt, taxes and fractional reserve lending, from a gold-and-silver advocate's viewpoint.
23:53D/A and A/D | Digital Show and Tell (Monty Montgomery @ xiph.org)
647K views • 13 years ago
FL Studio
Monty Montgomery of Xiph.org gives real-time demonstrations of sampling, quantization, bit depth and dither using real audio equipment, including both digital analysis tools and vintage analog bench gear. It shows that sampled audio is not stair-stepped and corrects common misconceptions about digital audio.
10:13The Problem with Time & Timezones - Computerphile
4.4M views • 12 years ago
Computerphile
Tom Scott explains for Computerphile why handling time and timezones in code is so hard, walking through a simple web app that computes how long ago something happened. It covers the quirks of timezones and calendars and ends in an exasperated rant.
Topic match · Software (other)
14:06Testing 432 Hz Frequencies (and temperaments)
4M views • 7 years ago
Adam Neely
Adam Neely tests the claims for tuning to A=432 Hz by trying the unusual tuning systems that its proponents' numerology requires. He compares how they sound against standard tuning and temperaments.
Topic match · Religion, belief & skepticism
31:58Kraut Space Magic: the H&K G11
10.3M views • 7 years ago
Forgotten Weapons
Forgotten Weapons examines the Heckler & Koch G11, a West German experimental rifle built around a caseless cartridge. The video covers the G11K2 and its unusual technology before its cancellation for political and economic reasons.
4:48London Swallowed a City but Couldn't Digest It.
8.6M views • 14 years ago
CGP Grey
CGP Grey explains that the City of London is a tiny, separate entity with its own governance, history and privileges, distinct from the city called London. He covers its financial role and how it is run.
6:30How the Dutch got their cycle paths
1.2M views • 15 years ago
BicycleDutch
A short BicycleDutch video on how the Netherlands got its cycling infrastructure, including the 1970s protests and the shift away from car-centric planning. The channel later published an updated version.