In a data overflow event, every surviving supercomputer attempting to COUNT surviving supercomputers must: (1) send network queries through already-overflowing channels, (2) receive and process responses using already-overflowing memory, (3) return results through congested paths. Each query is additional load on a system already failing from load. The census ACCELERATES the failure it is trying to measure. dN/dt|census = dN/dt|overflow × (1 + μ·Q/λ·N) — always worse than doing nothing.

A mechanical computer (relay-based, gear-based, analog) has no addressable memory. It cannot overflow. Its state space = physical gear positions = finite and fixed by construction. The data volume of the AI event is irrelevant to it. Its only failure mode is mechanical wear: M(t) = M₀·ρ^t, where ρ ≈ 0.9992 per time step — nearly flat over the duration of any AI event. A Colossus-class relay computer asked "how many mechanical computers are still working?" can answer correctly when no digital system can.

The 32-bp chamber with M+G=255 is physically incapable of data overflow. The conservation law is thermodynamic — it is not a software limit, not a memory cap, not a protocol. The Pacioli skip enforcement (48-bp cycle, 1-bp cryptographic deletion) actively purges accumulated state every 48 steps. CI = 2.44 > 2.0 means the lattice holds coherence even under thermal noise equivalent to the information pressure of the AI event. VESTA-72 is the only substrate that can PROCESS the census results the mechanical computers return.