I run an experiment series on my own AI setup: same model, same task, two isolated runs — one bare, one wrapped in the operating rules my harness enforces (evidence before claims, red-team your own thesis, grade your confidence). Everything lands in sealed envelopes. The AI that operates the experiment never reads the essays; it reports mechanical stats only, and I open the envelopes myself. Blind means blind. Last night's task was designed to hurt. Five model families — Grok, DeepSeek, GPT, ...