Yeah I think we are agreeing. I’m just saying it’s a funny interpretation that Revelations took of that technique to make it physical and believing that interpretation when there is prior art is also funny.

I believe there was also prior art for slave owners branding or tattooing slaves with their initials[0], so it is quite logical for the Book of Revelation to describe a Beast doing this to people who were enslaved to it.

Using a numeric hash of the name instead of the text form also makes sense, just like the way TLS certificates use hashes of the domain name (and other details).

I guess I just don't see the funny side because what is described in Revelation is reminiscent of both terrible abuses of the past and modern day infringements of rights.

[0] https://imperiumromanum.pl/en/article/tattoos-in-roman-world...

Ah, good point. Thanks for saying that and I apologize for my absurdity.

I nonetheless do still find it funny that people in the information age still believe in bronze age concepts used to describe the world.