Initially the bits were counted from 0, however this had two issues:

* using 0 as starting point would immediately trigger one's "computer science" instinct, and then it's uncertain which bit is actually bit `0`? the least significant one (as is in most cases), or the most significant one?

* by using 1 as the starting point, I hope would induce most people to just use it as a counter to number things in the "normal" (for westerners) left-to-right top-to-bottom, thus encoding / decoding is more "natural";

Absolutely makes sense. I have a 1960s desk tchotchke paper tape punch and I am tempted to cut my password store keyphrase into a tape in 7 bit ASCII with checksum as a super-encoded string, and then put it in the tombstone letter with the USB stick and instructions for decoding running the home filestore. A friend has a 3D printer and I think a small optical (light behind) reader and a decode table print might do the trick. There is the sprocket holes in paper tape but the weakness is driving things, and the tape roll is now 5 decades old, so the risk of a tear is there.

I'd do it in my stash of hollerith cards, but I don't have a desk punch. I suppose I could simply take some of the pre-punched ones, and use them as the key phrase!