How is SEQUENCE different from AUTO_INCREMENT if you have only a single writeable db instance? If you dump & restore a table with SEQUENCE values as IDs, does the restored DB have the same IDs, or are they generated anew on restore?
Also, SSN is a terrible key [1] and getting uniqueness without central coordination can be done with UUIDv4 or ksuid [2], as long as you have a reasonably trustworthy source of randomness
With SEQUENCE it's up to you to select the ID and insert it as a column value in your code. With AUTO_INCREMENT the DBMS does it for you. They both depend on a central DBMS to generate values. In both cases you can restore data. The IDs are just normal column values after generation.
As far as SSAN I'm not asserting it's a good key, just a natural key, which is to say a key inherent in the record.
Also, SSN is a terrible key [1] and getting uniqueness without central coordination can be done with UUIDv4 or ksuid [2], as long as you have a reasonably trustworthy source of randomness
[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26776092
[2] https://github.com/segmentio/ksuid/blob/master/README.md