Name and numbers

[084] ... [General]

In a way this should have been part of the last post, but came to mind later. Rather than updating the previous, and also to avoid being too jokey, with another joke on numbered references, is treated separately.

A large prison's inmates spent their time by sharing jokes. The first thing they tried was to extract more jokes whenever a new mate joined. After a while they realised on having heard them all. Instead of someone repeating a known joke and others waiting to laugh till the end, they devised a new system. Each joke was numbered, and then on someone had to just mention the code. Joke number 67 some guy would say in an animated way, and grasping the contents, everyone would burst out laughing.

These numbered references exist in so many ways, like the ever increasing serialized KB numbers of Knowledge Base for Updates and error codes that make it easy to search and know in detail. You become the seat number when travelling or at the theatre, your vehicle registration number or the security number points to you. Your bank won't know your money is with them without the account number, and quite often the last few digits of phone number is what triggers who the caller is. Many aspects of life turn out to be where your name becomes secondary. The unfortunate prison inmates, though identified as mere numbers, had the sense of humor to see fun in numbers...