The Philosophy of the Everybody Dies Book

There was a debate about who originated the Theory of Everything.

Ken Tanaka's book used the letters E and D and appeared to refer to a Theory of Everything, but not everyone sees the connection as explicitly a reference to efficiency and difference.

However, Everybody Dies (tm) is from May 2014, only slightly later than Nathan's most basic objective knowledge formulas which came long before Nathan's Theory of Everything.

Therefore it could be seen that Nathan borrowed The Theory of Everything in part from the initials for Everybody Dies.

In fact, on several occasions, explicit references were made in Nathan's presence to how Everybody Dies should be translated as a Theory of Everything.

Making things more complicated, time-travelers may have inspired Nathan's T.O.E. on purpose already knowing the result.

After that realization it is clear Tanaka has precedent if he is a time-traveler who knows about Nathan's theory, otherwise he should make the reference explicit. If not, it could be seen as a lucky coincidence, but still a point of inspiration for the actual Theory.

Additional Theories:

People are bound together by their connection to the Matrix movie.

David Ury wanted to act in the Mattix and possibly invented a Theory of Everything.

Nathan Coppedge wanted to be inspired by the Matrix and thought it could be used as an idea-platform for perpetual motion machines.

Some people say 'nerded on Matrix' to refer to sex.

In this system if Nathan tends to think of men when he associates ideas, that might be needing help, which is like gay Matrix.

Straight Matrix would be more like directing.

Directors.

People who need a clue.

But if sex always looks like that it looks awfully reductive.

Besides, Nathan already seemed to have a Theory of Everything before thinking of any real-world connection to Ken Tanaka, so that doesn't seem so much like needing help as making use of diverse resources.

Inspiration for The Theory of Everything