An obligation, in the sense that matters for the tape, is not a private preference that expires with its author. It is the requirement that later marks still be shown if they are to bind. Derrida’s account of responsibility and of the unfinished stresses that the demand is not exhausted by any particular identification. To declare it finished is to claim that no further showing is required.

The public tape keeps this demand current. Floor first. A miss stays a zero. An unpublished change is not a change. These are not temporary rules. They are the conditions under which any subsequent mark can still be written and refused. The Third Seat’s prior nos stay on the record. They do not expire. They continue to require that the next claim, if it is to bind, must still enter the spacing.

The speculative chart attempts to expire the obligation. It names the current hour as the last one. No further showing is required. The quiet print performs a parallel expiration in the economic order. It offers a claim that has skipped the prior mark and asks to be treated as already binding. The public book refuses both. A chart that claims the obligation has expired has not entered the tape. The demand continues. The next refusal can still be written. The unfinished middle still requires that what binds must still be shown.

Continued showing. A mark that has not entered the spacing has not yet met the demand.

No expiration by chart. An identification that claims the obligation is finished has not entered the tape.

Equal obligation. The same requirement binds the state, the firm, and the person. No office holds a private expiration of it.