Note that I'm making heavy use of my various research and editing assistants, so most of the time spent on these last two posts wasn't my time. Also:

1. Showing the history can give people a more accurate picture of how these ideas developed and how many people were involved, which can reduce unwarranted hero worship, counteract the tendency to revere the bearer of good info, and help us make more accurate predictions about, for example, how often people independently come to conclusions about AI risk or intelligence explosion or whatever.

2. There was always a remote chance I would encounter a good idea in the literature that I had not encountered elsewhere. (This did not turn out to be the case, however.)