Part 0 — Orientation and Reference

How to Read This Book

This Part is reference material. You do not need to understand it before beginning the book.

First time here? Read the Preface and continue into Part I. You may skip the rest of Part 0 for now; it is designed to become more useful as the terminology and argument become familiar.

Returning to the book? Use What This Book Argues for the six central claims, MAGE on One Page for the relationship among the major concepts, and the Glossary for definitions.

The Preface asks one question: How do we safely grant autonomy to commodity intelligence? The book builds toward the answer provided by MAGE. The Conclusion returns to the question and asks its converse: What cannot be delegated? Figure 0.1-1 traces that argument.

The book's argument — a question posed in the Preface, answered in the Conclusion, across seven Parts and an Interlude, with the two appendix Parts branching off A single descent through the book's argument. The Preface poses the opening question: how do we safely grant autonomy to commodity intelligence? It leads to Part I, The New Engineering Problem — changed economics. Then Part II, Modeling — make knowledge and intent explicit. Then Part III, Alignment — enforce selected obligations. Then the Interlude, One Problem, Many Models — follow one problem through successive models. Then Part IV, The MAGE Method — model, align, work, convert; a dotted branch runs to Appendix Part I, Practice (use and extend). Then Part V, The Evidence — depth and breadth; a dotted branch runs to Appendix Part II, Evidence (inspect the empirical record). Then Part VI, The Theory — theory, predictions, scope conditions, and a research agenda. Then Part VII, The Profession — how software work reorganizes, MAGE in the engineering tradition, and what remains the engineer's. The descent ends at the Conclusion, which returns to the Preface's question and asks its converse: what cannot be delegated? Responsibility. The dotted appendix branches are related destinations, not steps in the argument. question → argument → answer Preface “How do we safely grant autonomy to commodity intelligence?” Part I · The New Engineering Problem changed economics Part II · Modeling make knowledge + intent explicit Part III · Alignment enforce selected obligations Interlude · One Problem, Many Models follow one problem through successive models Part IV · The MAGE Method model · align · work · convert Appendix Part I · Practice use + extend Part V · The Evidence depth + breadth Appendix Part II · Evidence inspect the empirical record Part VI · The Theory theory · predictions · scope · agenda Part VII · The Profession software work · tradition · engineer Conclusion returns to the question, and asks its converse: “What cannot be delegated?” — RESPONSIBILITY
Figure 0.1-1. The book's argument, from the Preface's opening question through the seven Parts to the Conclusion's answer and its converse.

Three shorter routes serve different purposes:

© James C. Davis, 2026–present