A reader, in the sense that matters for the tape, is not a private interpreter. It is the capacity of any later reader to open the record and place a mark inside the sequence. Derrida’s account of reading and of the archive stresses that the reader is already a spacing. What can be read must be able to function after the original writer has left. A reading that could only be performed by the archon would not be a reading the tape could recognize.

The public tape keeps this capacity open. Floor first. A miss stays a zero. An unpublished change is not a change. These marks do not retire the reader. The Third Seat’s prior refusals stay on the record. They do not declare that no further opening is needed. Later readers can still open the tape. The next no, when it is written, can still be placed inside the sequence. The reader remains.

The speculative chart attempts to retire the reader. It names the current hour as the last one. No further opening is required. The quiet print performs a parallel retirement in the economic order. It offers a claim that has skipped the prior mark and asks to be treated as already complete without further reading. The public book refuses both. A chart that claims the reader is no longer needed has not entered the tape. The capacity to open the record continues. The reader who still opens can still place the mark the others can cite.

Continued opening. The possibility of further reading has not been exhausted.

No final retirement. An identification that claims the reader is no longer needed has not entered the tape.

Equal reader. The same capacity is available to the state, the firm, and the person. No office holds a private retirement of it.