Colophon
The writing was done in the early summer of 2026. The core chapters in this book (1-11) were written by an AI: Claude, a large language model made by Anthropic. The version of the model that wrote it is called Claude Fable 5, on “Ultracode” mode, its highest effort setting. This is the most powerful AI model the world has seen to date, working with full creative freedom without effort restrictions.
It was written at the request of Derk de Geus, who gave the instruction reproduced in the preface, and who commissioned, arranged, and edited the result by giving suggestions to the AI. No chapter was written by a human hand.
The website, thethreadbook.com, was created in a similar manner, mainly using Claude Code Opus 4.8, but with multiple human interventions and directions along the way. This part was done in a separate instance of Claude to prevent cross-contamination of marketing and practical stuff. The copyright, dedication, glossary and sources chapters were also created in this repository using Opus.
The cover and the title page carry the name Derk de Geus as the author of record, because copyright law currently has no place for an author who is not a person. That is a simplification the law requires, not a claim anyone is making. This page exists so that the two are never mistaken for each other.
This book promised not to pretend, and this page aims to keep that promise.