Sounds like something that would only work in a population of a given size, and no bigger.

But then, I think a lot of things are starting to break down simply because the numbers are becoming too cumbersome, and there's too much "diversity" all the way around. Computers came in a "just in time" sort of way to save certain problems from arising, but perhaps they only served as an extension of sorts (which is all technology really does, in the end ...)

(Computers certainly came just in time to handle the population boom after WW2 and the crazy-ass population explosion since then; otherwise, I can see a whole lot of "scibe errors" taking place that computers simply don't allow ... my mom told me about an incident she had just before I was born in '68, where she noticed an older woman's bankbook in front of her had the same account number she did. And this was when our bank branches each acted like their own little island, and you had to do things at your branch and there were no ATMs or anything until I was an older kid. Anyway, imagine still having to keep track of accounts or anything else by hand, on paper, in filing cabinets, with armies of typists ...)

Sounds like something that would only work in a population of a given size, and no bigger.

But then, I think a lot of things are starting to break down simply because the numbers are becoming too cumbersome, and there's too much "diversity" all the way around. Computers came in a "just in time" sort of way to save certain problems from arising, but perhaps they only served as an extension of sorts (which is all technology really does, in the end ...)

(Computers certainly came just in time to handle the population boom after WW2 and the crazy-ass population explosion since then; otherwise, I can see a whole lot of "scibe errors" taking place that computers simply don't allow ... my mom told me about an incident she had just before I was born in '68, where she noticed an older woman's bankbook in front of her had the same account number she did. And this was when our bank branches each acted like their own little island, and you had to do things at your branch and there were no ATMs or anything until I was an older kid.)