11 sources behind this chapter. Each one carries a note on what it is doing in the argument.
Official artist source for the Spice Girls reference in Chapter 11; ‘Wannabe’ was released by Virgin Records in 1996.
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Spice Girls. Official website, accessed 31 July 2026. See also ‘Wannabe.’ Virgin Records, 1996.
MIT OpenCourseWare image demonstrating that squares A and B are the same shade of grey.
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Massachusetts Institute of Technology. ‘The checkerboard illusion, illustrating simultaneous contrast.’ MIT OpenCourseWare, accessed 26 July 2026.
METR’s time-horizon methodology and its January 2026 Time Horizon 1.1 update. Update: https://metr.org/blog/2026-1-29-time-horizon-1-1/
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METR. ‘Measuring AI Ability to Complete Long Tasks.’ March 2025; ‘Time Horizon 1.1.’ January 2026.
Paper underlying METR’s human-calibrated task-completion time-horizon work.
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Kwa, Thomas, Ben West, et al. ‘Measuring AI Ability to Complete Long Software Tasks.’ METR, arXiv:2503.14499, March 2025.
METR’s randomised controlled trial of experienced open-source developers using early-2025 AI tools.
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METR. ‘Measuring the Impact of Early-2025 AI on Experienced Open-Source Developer Productivity.’ July 2025.
Paper record for the METR developer-productivity experiment.
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Becker, Joel, Nate Rush, Elizabeth Barnes and David Rein. ‘Measuring the Impact of Early-2025 AI on Experienced Open-Source Developer Productivity.’ METR, arXiv:2507.09089, July 2025.
Official artist-channel release metadata identifies the recording and 1985 Sire Records release.
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Talking Heads. ‘Road to Nowhere.’ Little Creatures. Sire Records, 1985.
Edward Adelson’s original checker-shadow illusion.
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Adelson, Edward H. ‘Checkershadow Illusion.’ MIT, 1995.