XPost: rec.arts.sf.written, rec.arts.books   
   From: droleary@4usenet2013.subsume.com   
      
   In article ,   
    tmcd@panix.com (Tim McDaniel) wrote:   
      
   > That's too much (pedantry|hair-splitting|ignoring the obvious   
   > assumptions) even for me.  I think it unlikely that anyone would   
   > bother to provide or use such an absurdly long address if it were not   
   > needed.   
      
   "Needed" is in the eye of the beholder.  I have a one-man corporation,   
   for example, and there are *many* things for which I need to include the   
   company name as well as a suitable title (e.g., one day I'm President,   
   next day I'm CEO, next day I'm Treasurer).  If I got more mail, I might   
   also try to make triage easier by assigning various departments to route   
   it through in the same way I create various emails for sales@, billing@,   
   etc.   
      
   > Further, it is highly   
   > unlikely that Mr. Doe comprises more than one department, and highly   
   > unlikely that a department comprises more than one corporation, so the   
   > address is entirely consistent with little-endian notation.   
      
   The *format* is consistent, but my point is that *reality* is not   
   necessarily consistent with that format.  If I wanted to be truly   
   pedantic, I could also argue that departments are *not* comprised of   
   people (i.e., a department exists independent of the people assigned to   
   it, just as the people exist independent of the department they're   
   assigned to) and that, likewise, cities are *not* comprised of   
   roads/streets/avenues/lanes/boulevards.  In that respect, the whole   
   discussion of endian regarding addresses is a bit crazy.   
      
   If you want sanity, go for a physics-based location specification like   
   GPS coordinates.  If you want to route to some non-static destination   
   (e.g., a person) use some other notation.  This is a particularly   
   interesting subject not only for a science fiction story that envisions   
   space travel, but implications for things like time travel makes for a   
   really, *really* fun time.   
      
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