Please correct me if I’m wrong, might have breathed in too many soap fumes.
Token Ring sends the packets to every node by passing it from one node and if that node is not the recipient it passes it on to the next node.
Memos were created the day before with a list of recipients then it was passed around till everyone on the list had read it.
That is what ‘automation’ often is. You take a working process, then let machines do as many steps in that process as you can. Harvesting crops, sending memos, robots spraypainting car parts, self driving cars (We still have a lot to do there)
Building on that it gets even more interesting as we try to find better, or even completely new processes.