The Ontology of Record in Class Societies: Writing, Numbers, Code, and the Fixation of Power

This article develops the concept of the ontology of record as a foundational mechanism in the formation and persistence of class societies. Rather than treating writing, numbers, and code as neutral technologies, it argues that they function as temporal instruments that stabilize social relations by fixing claims, obligations, and hierarchies in time. In oral societies, memory is embodied, negotiable, and context-dependent, preventing long-term class consolidation. With the emergence of writing, however, social claims become detachable from living witnesses and binding across generations. The state institutionalizes this process by deciding which records are authoritative, while numerical quantification transforms inequality into a technical rather than ethical matter. In contemporary digital systems, algorithmic code further intensifies record ontology by automating decisions and allocating futures in advance. The article reframes class formation not only as a matter of production relations or ideology, but as a process of temporal inscription.