Amazing thing about the Program - the traditions and a fundamental understanding of what works among those that have recovered have led to an almost 100 year run of "if it aint broke don't fix it" since the Program came out in book form. I'm not sure there is anything else in our society that has been this consistent.
That's one of the key reasons that they wrote the book - so that the directions for recovery did not become watered down or confused through word of mouth.
Keeping those first 164 pages fundamentally unchanged through four editions allows a drunk like me to know that if I do what is suggested on those pages I can recover.
Most often you hear page references to things that have become habit in our 10th and 11th Steps - many use 86-88 as a way to start their day "On awakening...". Or, as @BearSchlong referenced above - certain prayers / passages are read at the beginning or end of meetings and as part of that, the page numbers are cited. It becomes engrained and thus repeated.
That's part of our "tool box" upon which we learn to lean at the direction of a sponsor.
The fellowship is where I go to receive or share experience, strength, and hope....but the Program is the course of action as outlined in the first 164 pages.
That's why I am so grateful that it hasn't been changed, because I know it works. The first 100 didn't really have a fellowship. Hell, they didn't even have a Big Book. They had a series of actions they took in a precise order and methodology from which they recovered with a staggering success rate.
I think it is pretty cool and believe that there is some divine ongoing inspiration in the fact that I could wake up in a time warp, but the Program and guidance would be unchanged.
I guess it is possible that the Program as outlined in the book could change and I might still find recovery in that, but I'm not willing to FAFO when my life is at stake.
My mind is out to kill me, so I have no interest in working MY Program. My best thinking brought me to my knees.
I want to work THE Program that has been more successful than anything science, religion, or personal will power has brought to bear against this disease.
That's a lot of word salad to simply say - I love the fact that the consistency has been such that across time and distance we all read from the same set of precise directions (down to page number and paragraph)....so much so that that even the googlewebs will auto-fill what I need if I start typing "pages 86 -..."