Well you ask for questions so I shall provide! I'm new to the story (my first reading is the 10th build) so I apologise for any repeat questions in advance; feel free to just direct me to the relevant answers. And for anybody reading this who hasn't already read this masterpiece, go read it instead of this because there will likely be spoilers and it's definitely worth it to keep the mystery intact.
Is that a Rook cameo I spy?! So now I'm curious about how and why you pick the people you feature as cameos (I'm pretty sure there's more I just don't recognise)? In particular, whether there's a conversation between yourself and those you insert into the background?
What other types of Abilities are there? As far as I can remember, there's only really been mention of cryomancy and a few other things that could be speculatively connected to Abilities.
Has there been much research into Abilities? Nat was supposedly, an expert about Abilities but she mostly just talks about how the scientific community don't know much other than that Abilities started popping up after the Shift and that they have yet to be able to measure them effectively. Considering they have the technology to interface with yuuman brains, surely they've tried measuring the brain activity of people while they use their Abilities? And what about the capacities of particular Abilities? Such as seeing how cold a cryomancer can make a room, how quickly this occurs, and working out what happens to the heat energy from the room. I guess I'm just generally curious about the details of the experiments that have been performed regarding Abilities.
Also, minor note: when a scientist uses the term "theory" they mean an explanation of a phenomenon that has a lot of solid evidence supporting it which is why you'll never hear a scientist dismiss an idea as "just a theory". A better term to use, for during that water cooler conversation in the lab, might be "hypothesis" which is a meaningful explanation which can make predictions that can be proven false with an experiment. Just a little lesson in scientific literacy, free of charge!
Here's a more speculative question, is that shade an Ability user?! Because we know it can have physical form and even converse with multiple people at once who have the same perceptions of it, such as in the train with Daphne. Those times it appears, such as the protagonist's investigation of Daphne and Apollo's family photo, can be explained with the protagonist not being a perfect narrator since Bradbury can also seemingly appear out of no where as well. The vision distortions it causes could also potentially explained by being some kind of Ability that manipulate people's perceptions which may even carry over to androids if their perception works in a similar enough way to yuumans. And considering the shade has bright red eyes like Daphne, seems to only show up when Daphne is around, and the mysterious circumstances surrounding her parents (likely involving trauma), the shade could be someone related to her and watching over her.
What is the distinction between C-Grade and B-Grade AI? The main difference I can find is that B-Grade AI have the ability to initiate conversations. Such as how Arthur, a B-Grade AI, could interrupt the protagonist while they were doing something else, in contrast to the C-Grade AI guarding George's house which only responds when the protagonist engages the intercom (or otherwise attempts to enter the house).
Where did the title of The Owners come from and when was it first used? Most companies refer to the people who own company shares as shareholders, investors, or stakeholders, so I'm curious what triggered the granting of this title? Eccentricity of wealthy people I guess?
I'm also very curious about what the modifications made to Harlan's black box are. Because I feel like any changes to the super secure component that holds a Transferred yuuman's mind/soul would be very important. One modification I can think of that the FBI might want, is to allow them to look into it while it works thus turning it into a grey or white box. This is of course so they can make sure it's still Harlan in there and nothing else that Pandora might of put in there. Another could be to introduce more loyalty or obedience into the personality of the new Harlan. Although, I'm less certain about this modification since I'm pretty sure the old Harlan is an old veteran friend of Bradbury's rather than some kind of useful criminal I initially thought he was.
Here's another history question, when and why was the no violence for no reason whatsoever law passed? I'm particularly curious about the kinds of arguments that were made to particularly exclude self defence as an exception to it. Since, as far as I can reason, not allowing self defence unreasonably burdens the targets of attacks and thus emboldens initiators. Consider that anyone being attacked have only three initial options: attempt to flee, which is the only right option according to this law and could fail due to the environment, and the skills of the attacker and target; take the beating without fighting back, which could result in death and is guaranteed to be painful, and then report the attacker, if able, to get some semblance of justice; and defending themselves which doesn't stop the attacker from attacking someone else without also punishing the defender when reporting the fight. Now consider these outcomes from an attacker's perspective, who has the advantage of choosing the location and method of attack, and is already willing to risk becoming a target for law enforcement: if their target flees they either catch them, which allows the attacker to continue with their plan, or they escape which means no fight occurred and thus the attacker is not punished; if their target takes the beating, the attacker's plan can continue as intended; and if their target does fight back, they can disengage without the worry of the target reporting the fight since that would punish them both. So not exempting self defence from a no violence law mostly serves to hide fights rather than deter them.
Anyway, regardless of whether these question that I have posed get answered or even considered, if you couldn't tell, I'm very invested in this great story and I'm glad to have stumbled upon it. Keep up the good work!