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Equation 15 · Part 2 · The Economics and Physical Limits of Running AI Agents at Scale

Symbol delta

τ+δ\tau + \delta
δ\delta

What this part means

delta is a part of this expression. Its role is fixed by the surrounding article and by the operations shown in the formula.

Its job in the formula

delta is a part of this expression. Its role is fixed by the surrounding article and by the operations shown in the formula.

The passage around this formula

Because the API is stateless between calls, step i in the loop must include, as ordinary input, everything that made it into the transcript through step i-1 : the tool results, the intermediate reasoning, the earlier outputs. Call the amount a single step permanently adds to that growing transcript σ\sigma — roughly δ\delta plus oˉ\bar{o} , since both the new material a step introduces and the output it produces become part of what every later step has to resend. Without caching, step i ’s input is not just τ\tau + δ\delta ; it is τ\tau + δ\delta plus the accumulated weight of every prior step, (i-1)σ\sigma :

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A variable is a named place for a value. Its letter is a local label: x can mean position in one formula and a data point in another.

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