Identity

Digital systems do not interact with reality directly. They interact with representations of entities.

A person appears in a government registry. In a bank database. In a CRM. In a social media profile. In a news article. A car appears in a registration system, an insurance policy, a maintenance log, and a traffic record. An artist appears under different names across platforms, contracts, releases, and archives.

Each system contains a representation.

None of these representations is the entity itself.

They are fragments. Partial, contextual, and dependent on the system in which they exist.

Without identity, these fragments remain disconnected.

Signals accumulate, but systems cannot determine whether they refer to the same underlying entity. Continuity becomes fragile. History becomes difficult to reconstruct.

Identity provides the stable reference that connects these fragments.

A vehicle identification number connects ownership records, insurance policies, and maintenance history across decades. An ISBN connects editions, publishers, and catalogues to the same book. A company registration number connects legal filings, financial records, and public references to the same organisation.

These identifiers remain stable even as attributes change.

Names change. Ownership changes. Platforms change. Systems change.

Identity persists.

Identity does not centralise data.

It provides continuity across systems.

It allows signals, captured in different places and at different moments in time, to accumulate into a coherent representation of an entity.

Without identity, systems record isolated observations.

With identity, systems retain continuity.

Identity is what allows digital systems to recognise persistence across change.

It is the foundation upon which continuity, infrastructure, and memory depend.