Well, sure absolutely. I mean, a database might hold an arbitrary # in a given row & column but what would be the point of letting users of, say, Reddit manipul

Well, sure absolutely. I mean, a database might hold an arbitrary # in a given row & column but what would be the point of letting users of, say, Reddit manipulate their cell in the database freely? If that were possible then they couldn't lord their internet points over all the other redditors with fewer upvotes. And if you don't have the validation of masses of faceless internet users quantifies in this way where's the fun of social interactions? Are we supposed to go back to the barbaric days where you didn't know how many people approved of a family photo you physically showed to a coworker? Civilization didn't spend thousands of years advancing to this point merely to fall back on analog & non-discrete valuations on human worth.