Census taker

If you win a lottery and the state deposits 8000000 to your account, when you withdraw 1 your balance will be 7999999. The accuracy of the bank is much greater than that of the census takers, especially since the census takers update their data only once every 10 years. 

Large-scale computation was needed by mathematicians, astronomers, and "natural philosophers," but it was also needed by navigators, census-takers, engineers, and warmongers. 

The goal is to get rid of intersubjective variability on the part of the census takers or coders. And that requires standard, mechanical procedures that leave no room for personal judgment. See Porter, Trust in Numbers, p. 29. 

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