In article , Mike Easter
wrote:

much less with three words than a bunch of digits.

*IF* some circumstance required a human to need to remember a word or 3
words, it would be better to do that than remember or 'repeat' a long
string of numbers.

that's exactly the point.

That is not *exactly* the point. You are creating 'your own' scenario,
while the original issue/ example was quite different from that.

the original scenario is just one of many, many possibilities where
what3words is a *much* easier and a far more human-friendly solution.

and it's not just numbers.

instead telling someone to meet you at 'the southwest corner of the
park, near the fountain', or 'head north on the beach a bit', you can
tell them three words and they will find the *exact* location, within a
few feet.

In that particular *different* scenario than the original, now the
recipient of the information MUST integrate the precise and correct
interpretation of the words you transmitted somehow, perhaps verbally,
but in addition, they must possess a working device into which they must
'laboriously' tap in those words hopefully correctly w/o any typos
whatsoever and then the device must be able to access the database which
will properly map that word/coordinate onto a map.

nearly everyone has such a device, which they would also need if gps
coordinates were given, or even just to pull up a map of the area and
find out how to get to the southwest corner from wherever they are.

in some cases a street address of a building is not where the actual
entrance is, which might be around the corner. this is very common with
hospitals, where the main entrance and emergency entrance are not
always near each other, and may even differ from the business address.

That particular issue is very well known from everyone from uber drivers
to emergency responders. An address is not an exact location,
particularly when an address has numerous/ myriad/ far flung locations
both horizontally and vertically.

most hospital visitors are *not* uber drivers or emergency responders
and not all such buildings are hospitals.

what3words makes it trivial to find the appropriate part of the
building, versus a street address.


*BUT* that is a strawman argument, in the scenario I envision.

there is no strawman.

The human does NOT need to remember or repeat any words or numbers at
all, so the IF circumstance above does not apply (here).

not every instance is a mobile device sending a packet of data to
someone capable of automatically mapping said data.

The specific instance which we began talking about is hikers lost w/ a
phone w/ connectivity requesting aid from a dispatcher w/ access to all
kinds of resources.

That phone can digitally transmit its location coordinates to the
dispatcher who can send help to those precise coordinates and no one
needs to remember or speak any numbers (or location words) in order for
that to transpire.

it can, but it's just one of numerous possibilities