Earth · Last line of defense
Beat the
Times Machine
The Times Machine has come to optimize Earth— no fun, no creativity, just cold robotic calculation. You've been chosen to defend it. Win a battle of multiplication facts and the Machine leaves for good. Lose, and the lights go out.
It computes instantly. It can't learn. You can.
Free to try · Takes 90 seconds
What it teaches
Everything that should be instant.
The full arithmetic foundation, drilled until it's automatic — times tables to 15, squares to 20, and cubes to 20. Way past where school stops.
Times Tables
1× through 15×Squares
1² through 20²Cubes
1³ through 20³The science of cognitive load
Build automaticity.
Working memory can only hold a few things at once. So when a student has to stop and manually grind 14 × 13 or 17² in the middle of a calculus, physics, or algebra problem, the brain hits a traffic jam — and the real thinking stalls.
Automaticity clears the jam. Once these facts live in long-term memory, recall is instant and effortless — which frees 100% of a student's mental energy for the higher-level logic instead of the basic arithmetic. That's why Times Machine pushes mastery all the way to 15 (tables) and 20 (squares & cubes), well past where most apps stop.
Memorizing squares and cubes up to 20 is a practical superpowerin middle school, high school, and on the SAT & ACT.
The patterns show up everywhere — areas, exponents, the Pythagorean theorem, test shortcuts. The kids who just know them move faster and second-guess less.
Cognitive Load Theory · Sweller, 1988
The Challenge
Can you beat the Machine?
Ten problems on the Machine's clock — a few warm-ups, then it stops being polite: 13×14, 19², 9³. No calculator. One miss and Earth is optimized. Get them all.
Free · No sign-up · Under a minute
The secret weapon
It can't learn. You can.
The Machine computes instantly but never improves — error is forbidden in its code. We weaponize the opposite. Three sciences, fifty years of research, one adaptive workout. Every “try again” makes your kid faster. That's the whole game.
Spaced Repetition
Every fact resurfaces right before your kid would forget it — the exact inflection point of the forgetting curve. The algorithm Anki refined over 30 years, computed per fact, per learner.
FSRS · open-source
Speed Matters
Hundreds of studies show speed of recall — not just accuracy — predicts long-term math success. Two kids who both get 7×8 right aren't equal if one took five seconds. We time every answer.
Shinn et al., CBM-M
Cover-Copy-Compare
Miss one and the answer flashes, vanishes, and you retype it from memory. Active retrieval beats passive correction by 40–60% in the research. It fires automatically on every miss.
Skinner et al., 1989
What it actually is
This isn't flashcards. It's a game.
17 levels. A soundtrack that goes hard. Three enforcers and a final boss with attitude. Your kid picks an operator, suits up, and trains in the Lattice — and the math just happens along the way.
The loop
Q4 / 8 · 00:02The mastery grid
Every fact, color-coded. In-progress states stay muted on purpose — only masteredfacts light up. A finished grid is a constellation in your kid's color.
Suit up
24 operators to become
LYRA
IRIS
NOVA
EMBER
VEX
HALO
PRISM
RAVEN
KESTREL
SAINT
QUILL
ECHOThe gauntlet
Three enforcers, then the Machine
The bored cynic.
The cocky predictor.
The haughty aesthete.
The trophy case
21 trophies to earn
For parents: command the mission
You set the stakes; they do the work. A quiet console that turns “are they actually getting better?” into a number you can see.
- Every kid's progress at a glance — mastery, streak, last-practiced.
- Set the reward yourself — $25, ice cream, screen time — and a deadline.
- Tune each learner: range, speed thresholds, squares & cubes on or off.
- A weekly recap in your inbox: what they mastered, where they're stuck.
Pricing
One price. Every learner. No per-kid tax.
IXL runs $79 a year — per student. Reflex, $45. We cover up to six learners on one plan, and the lifetime tier means your kid graduates from us instead of subscribing forever.
Monthly
Try the whole thing. Cancel anytime.
- Up to 6 learners
- Every level + boss
- All 24 operators
Defender
Best valuePay once. Yours forever. No subscription anxiety.
- Everything, for life
- All future levels & games
- Founding-family status
Annual
Two-thirds off the monthly.
- Everything in Monthly
- Built for a school year
- One quiet charge
Classroom
$3 / student / year · roster import · class dashboard · co-teachers.
For teachers: a whole class of champions
Fluency practice the whole room will actually want to do — with the oversight you need and none of the busywork.
- Roster import — your class playing in minutes, not forms.
- A class fluency dashboard: who's mastered what, who needs a nudge.
- Co-teachers welcome — shared oversight of the same roster.
- Built for $3 / student / year — far below IXL, Reflex, or Prodigy.
Questions
What ages is this for?
Roughly 6 through adult. The speed thresholds adjust by age, so a first-grader and a parent both get a fair fight. Plenty of grown-ups use it to sharpen up — the powers humble everyone.
Does it work on a phone or iPad?
Yes — it runs in any modern browser and installs to the home screen like an app. Practice works on the couch, in the car, anywhere.
Is my kid's data safe?
The parent is the only account holder. Kids are sub-profiles with no separate login, no email, and no personal data collected. We don't run third-party ads or behavioral tracking on children. COPPA-minded by design.
Can I add more than one kid?
Up to six learners on a single family plan — no per-kid charge. Each gets their own operator, color, progress, and trophy case.
Do I need to be good at math to help?
Not at all. Captain Reyes does the coaching; the science does the scheduling. Your job is to set the reward and cheer.
Can I cancel?
Anytime, in one tap. And the lifetime tier means you never think about it again.
The Machine has modeled this nine hundred trillion times.
It says you lose.
Prove it wrong.
Somebody has to answer the Challenge. Out of eight billion people, the math picked exactly one mind with the wiring to pull it off. Suit them up. The whole future's riding on a kid who isn't afraid to be wrong and try again.