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When will we, as a society get rid of paper?

A

Argo

Lifer
Or at least reduce it's usage to a minimum. Is there really need for all the bills I receive every month? My bank statements - I can look those up online. My utilities I already have a recurring payment setup so I don't recieve any bills, I just get a summary e-mail every month. Credit card bills and loans - I never ever look at them. I examine everythign online, to verify there are no erroneous charges and then throw the actual bills away. Same goes for various promotions - I'd much rather receive them in an e-mail format. Much easier to filter out.

Btw, this is prompted by me organizing my documents drawer last night and throwing out litterally one garbage bag worth of paper.
 
at least until our childrens generation, maybe when ours gets older

too many baby boomers still not comfortable with techmology

and even then, there are some things that people will just prefer to still be done on paper
 
Speaking on behalf of all computer programmers everywhere, let me assure you that we're working on it as our top priority. We'll let you know when it happens.

Sincerely,
NuclearNed
 
I don't like to think about things like this. I'd say it will be a very very very very very very long time. All that "in the future" crap they said we'd have by now that we are no where near leads me to this conclusion.

And to the toilet paper guy. 3 seashells, 3 seashells.
 
Within the next 10 years or so... the new generation uses less paper than mine and the one after will probably barely use any... except for TP maybe
 
Originally posted by: MetalMat
You still need toilet paper
Click to expand...

In Japan they have toilets that wash your ass, no need for paper! Why can't inventions like these make their way over here?
 
There will always be a need for a paper trail until there comes a time when data cannot be tampered with under any circumstances.
 
Originally posted by: samgau
Within the next 10 years or so... the new generation uses less paper than mine and the one after will probably barely use any... except for TP maybe
Click to expand...


are you high? and I'll be flying around in my hovercar....
 
Originally posted by: venk
Originally posted by: MetalMat
You still need toilet paper
Click to expand...

In Japan they have toilets that wash your ass, no need for paper! Why can't inventions like these make their way over here?
Click to expand...

How are you going to dry your ass? And no, I am not sticking a fan anywhere near there.
 
so you think one day beauracracy will just decide they really don't need to write down all those laws and stuff and they'll just burn a CD?
 
Well there is that new electronic reusable paper now.

I bet you live in the city, or close to one. There are still a lot of people that rely on snail mail. We won't get rid of paper until the entire nation has complete utility redundancy, disaster recovery, high speed data availability.
 
Technology is often best when combined with paper. They go hand in hand. Thus I don't forsee paper going away any time soon.

Take this common example for me. I'm playing a strategy game and I want to know the most optimal strategy. So I have these options:
1) Reach over 3" to a small pad of paper, write down a few numbers, then I have the numbers for comparison for the next few days instantly in my reach.
2) Minimize the game (which in Windows often is very time consuming and can cause problems if you are at the limits of your computer's memory). Open Notepad or some other processor. Type in the numbers. But wait, I have to switch back and forth (10+ seconds each time) to get them all written - never being able to see both at the same time for proof checking. Then take the time to find a good place to save the file and give it a name. Reverse the long tedius process every time I need to retrieve the data.
3) Buy another computer (PDA, laptop, or whatever) solely for this purpose. This is quite expensive and uses a lot of Earth's resources and polutes quite a bit.

Option #1 uses a small bit of a renewable resource and is by far the most convienient and useful. I'd never want paper to go away in this senerio.

Now do the same thing with critical business data.
 
Your online banking ideas are applicable in limited cases. The day that the companies give me the ~$1 it costs them to print and mail out the bills is the day that I'll switch to mostly electronic billing. The paper has a lot of uses - mainly that it is such a great reminder to pay the thing. It is so easy to delete those monthly email notices that a bill has been posted and to forget about them. A piece of paper coming to your mailbox is very difficult to just simply delete and forget.

Also, online banking like that simply doesn't work well when you have 100 things coming in each day. Are you really going to remember all 100 charges to the penny? Sure in college when you have 2-3 charges a week it is quite doable. But in many cases, it isn't. And one day, your memory won't be so good. You'll be 90 years old wishing paper was still around so you wouldn't get everything you own repossed every month.
 
Originally posted by: dullard
Your online banking ideas are applicable in limited cases. The day that the companies give me the ~$1 it costs them to print and mail out the bills is the day that I'll switch to mostly electronic billing. The paper has a lot of uses - mainly that it is such a great reminder to pay the thing. It is so easy to delete those monthly email notices that a bill has been posted and to forget about them. A piece of paper coming to your mailbox is very difficult to just simply delete and forget.

Also, online banking like that simply doesn't work well when you have 100 things coming in each day. Are you really going to remember all 100 charges to the penny? Sure in college when you have 2-3 charges a week it is quite doable. But in many cases, it isn't. And one day, your memory won't be so good. You'll be 90 years old wishing paper was still around so you wouldn't get everything you own repossed every month.
Click to expand...

even better: my bills get automatically paid online. check out paytrust.com. it's really cool. no paper bills at home!

 
Not any time soon. Sarbanes Oxley has destroyed the "paperless office" idea. In the last year we are consuming at least 2X the paper we used to, probably more like 3-4X. This is almost all due to having an audit trail.
 
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