🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <pauley.1135477258B@linus.mitre.org> pauley@mitre.org (Don Pauley) writes:
>All of this appears to be a technology in search of a problem.  The prime
>objective of any mail system (paper or electronic) is to deliver to an
>individual regardless of where that individual is located.  The Army is
>currently trying to develop an e-mail system for this purpose.  It is
>supposed to work efficiently even in highly mobile (jet plane) environment. 

Both identifying geographic locations and identifying people are
important in different applications at different times.  The universal
personal phone number is apt to replace the social security number as
a terse means to identify individual people.  The ability to associate
the two is even more powerful:

* The paramedics want to know geographic locations.

* With parcel and pizza deliveries, geography foremost.

* Email and telephone calls are generally intended for an individual, who
  can move around geographically and may actually be in motion at the time
  the communication needs to take place, as Don Pauley points out.

* We have become used to addressing snail mail to an individual at a
  specified geographic location.  Being able to address snail mail to an
  individuals personal phone number would solve the problem of how many
  Christmas cards get returned to me each year because friends have
  moved.  

Having the postal service maintain a translation map between phone
numbers and mailing addresses would be convenient.  Unfortunately, that
increases the reason to remember one's own and other's phone number
while decreasing the reason to remember the proposed geocode.

Getting machine friendly with terse personal and geographic codes will
speed the mail, pizza deliveries, and phone calls.  It won't replace
humanly readable addresses entirely.

	"Room 1234 at XYZ Building (Geocode: <whatever>)"

uses computers to get deliveries close, while providing redundant
information in human form in case the geocode is off a bit or doesn't
provide sufficient resolution.
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