The (related) idea of a generation counter combined with an index handle for spatial and temporal runtime memory safety has been quite popular recently in the g

The (related) idea of a generation counter combined with an index handle for spatial and temporal runtime memory safety has been quite popular recently in the gamedev space: - (shameless plug): https://floooh.github.io/2018/06/17/handles-vs-pointers.html https://floooh.github.io/2018/06/17/handles-vs-pointers.html - Seb Aaltonen's recent engine design presentation (search for "Fast & safe object lifetime tracking"): https://enginearchitecture.realtimerendering.com/downloads/reac2023_modern_mobile_rendering_at_hypehype.pdf https://enginearchitecture.realtimerendering.com/downloads/r... Some gamedev engines probably invented a similar concept in parallel over the last two decades. ...having things like this baked into the language is quite a bit nicer of course, and should allow for better performance.