Writer and producer Michael Chabon confirmed that the name of the synth homeworld, Coppelius, is a reference to the 1817 short story The Sandman, by E.T.A. Hoffmann. In the story a doctor named Coppelius builds a mechanical girl so lifelike that a young man falls in love with her. The short story is similar to: the Greek legend of Pygmalion, the basis for the George Bernard Shaw play and its musical adaptation My Fair Lady.
The first two initials of Altan Inigo Soong are AI (artificial intelligence).
A logo seen on the side of the crashed ship is that of the National Westminster Bank in Britain. Three chevrons facing away from each other.