Parham Pourdavood
Founder & CEO, firstness.ai | Computational Neuroscience | AI & Scientific Discovery
I'm the founder and CEO of firstness.ai, a visual interface that helps researchers and scientists discover novel hypotheses. My work sits at the intersection of computational neuroscience, AI, and philosophy of technology. I'm drawn to how AI systems reshape the way we think, communicate, and make meaning, and how they might expand rather than narrow human discovery. I began doing theoretical neuroscience research as an undergraduate at UC Berkeley, with subsequent work at UCSF and the San Francisco VA Medical Center, consulting as a research scientist on data science and software projects along the way. My work is enriched by a parallel practice as a composer.
Research
Essays
- LLMs as Cultural DNA — Understanding LLMs through the lens of evolutionary biology
- AI as a Catalyst for Human Taste and Creativity — How AI amplifies rather than replaces human creative agency
- Perturbing LLM Attractors Intentionally — On the dynamics and societal implications of human-AI interaction
- Reclaiming Creativity in the Age of LLMs — A conversation with Terrence Deacon & Jay Ogilvy
Selected Talks
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CLEA, Free University of Brussels · Sep 2025
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N² Conference, UM6P · Dec 2024
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Saint Mary's College of California · Oct 2024
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N² Conference, UC Berkeley International House · Nov 2023
YouTube Series
Patterns and Meaning — a conversation series
- From Redundancy to Evolvability — with Terrence Deacon & Timothy Jackson
- From Optimization to Empathy: The Future of AI — with Tomás Veloz
- The Story of the Noosphere — with Brian Swimme & Monica DeRaspe-Bolles
- A Meaningful Evolutionary Mask of the Universe — with Dr. Clément Vidal
Music
- Improvised Rhapsodies for Piano, Vol. 2 — Improvised piano rhapsodies, 2026
- Improvised Rhapsodies for Piano, Vol. 1 — Improvised piano rhapsodies, 2026
- Beneath the Sign — Piano compositions, 2026