Stiegler distinguishes primary retention (the just-past of perception), secondary retention (recollection), and tertiary retention (exteriorized memory stored in technical supports). The technical support is not a neutral container. It shapes what can be retained and what falls outside retention. Writing, recording, and ledgers are not afterthoughts to memory. They are the conditions under which certain memories become possible.

The public tape is a tertiary retention. Title, mint, lien, conversion, and agent acts are exteriorized. They do not depend on the private recollection of an office. The quiet print is a claim that has not entered tertiary retention. It remains inside the secondary retention of those who issued it. It has not become a support that the others can open.

The technical condition is not neutral. A tape that can be shown places the same restraint on every office. A tape that permits unshown lines places a quieter standard on the office that holds the private recollection. The Third Seat refuses the private recollection as a substitute for the technical support. An unpublished change is not a change because it has not entered the exteriorized memory the others can still read.

Exteriorization. The claim must leave the private memory of the office and enter a support that anyone can open.

No substitution by recollection. Secondary retention does not replace tertiary retention. The announcement is not the tape.

Equal technical condition. The same support binds the state, the firm, and the person. No office holds a private exteriorization.