The Analog Computer State: Quipu, Yupana and the Origins of Computational Sovereignty

This article develops a theoretical interpretation of the Inca administrative system as an early form of computational governance grounded in non-textual registration regimes. Drawing on Registration Regime Theory (RRT), the study argues that the Inca state did not rely on writing but on a programmable infrastructure combining quipu as a hierarchical and semantically encoded memory system and yupana as a computational device. Together, these formed an analog architecture capable of data storage, relational modeling, aggregation, and decision-making. This challenges writing-centered narratives of state formation and proposes a deeper historical ontology of sovereignty based on the capacity to register, compute, and stabilize social reality. The article situates quipu within a long trajectory from ritual memory to algorithmic governance and demonstrates structural continuities between Inca administration and contemporary digital infrastructures such as databases, artificial intelligence, and blockchain systems. The study concludes that sovereignty historically emerges not only from coercion or ideology but from the ability to construct computable reality.