Will we someday live paper-free lives? [Technology Round-up]

[CyberInferno]

One restaurant has replaced their paper menus with iPads (http://www.hardocp.com/news/2010/06/12/restaurant_uses_ipads_for_menus/). This leads to the question, will we someday live completely paper free?

This poll is in conjunction with this week's Technology Round-up (6/12/2010) (http://www.absolutepunk.net/showthread.php?t=1747972).

[mymusicismylife]

I believe that there will always be people who still like to have their good, old-fashioned books and such. If vinyl and cassettes are still around, I don't see why certain paper materials can't live on.

That being said, we also have no idea what the world is going to be like in one hundred years, so it's very hard to say.

I'm going to go with archival purpose. I thought about "Someday, but we won't live to see it," but I just find it hard to believe it will completely go away.

[chrislauren]

I refuse to read books on a screen. If i can't holdthings in my hand like magazines, cd booklets and such i'd just rather not have it.

[Alex DiVincenzo]

Someday, in a long time, I'm sure there will no longer be a use for it. But we definitely won't live to see it.

[Neo Cassady]

I'd hate to see a paperless world. I'm adamantly against eBooks (personally, I mean...there should be a push toward electronic textbooks, in conjunction with hardcopy archives...I voted #3), and you can't wrap a gift with thesundayfunnies.com.

What about those of us who like to write, who jot down notes of things on napkins (are we all going to be carrying around handkerchiefs?), who draw out maps for friends because they're easier to follow (and often give better directions) than a GPS? What would happen to libraries? No more free research tools, no way for those of us with a limited budget to have that sort of access to books without piracy (I'm assuming here that there isn't really a feasible way to have an online "library" system in the traditional, borrow for free as long as you return on time, sense). What about handwritten love letters? Where's the personalization in an email? (Speaking of which, my students no longer pass notes in class; they text each other instead.)

RE: choice #4, paper is not evil as long as the materials are replenished. As Ted Nugent(!) said (on Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations...I haven't seen the episode but I'm trusting a friend who mentioned this in his blog...someone prove me wrong if I am), “We have this wonderfully productive planet. Eat! Eat, drink, build! Have a good time, but put more back…Shut the [expletive] up, Sting! You want to save the rain forest, you should [expletive] up and go plant some [expletive] trees!”

To go back to the reason I voted #3, paper is indispensable as an archival tool, and indispensable as a means for ownership of property. The reason I don't buy digital music/movies/books is that when I buy those things in physical, material form, I own the product. Until the record warps or breaks, until the DVD deteriorates, until the book falls apart, those products are mine. When you buy digital, you aren't buying the product. Instead, you're buying the rights to use the product, and (as has been seen with Amazon and the Kindle (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/18/technology/companies/18amazon.html)) the company you buy it from can take that product away from you. It's corporate, digital book burning a la Fahrenheit 451.

One final example: I took a creative writing class in college, and a good portion of the class involved posting works we composed onto an online discussion board, where they could be critiqued by classmates. Some great pieces were written and published there, which I printed out because I knew I would want to read them again. Three years later, that discussion board has been deleted from the university website, and my printouts are the only means to read these stories.

tl;dr paper is necessary, but not evil.

[Theseventhson]

I agree with the other posters, I'd rather own a paper book than read on a Kindle. Voted 3.

[etheritcher]

What about concert posters? CD booklets? Magazines? Books? It would be a shame if those things were done away with. Maybe this is the English major in me speaking, but I love the library.

[loganmmm]

Sketches, paintings, etc... Paper is definitely necessary.

[fightinirish217]

I'd hate to see it but probably, someday long in the future.

[Alexx Miller]

I'd hate to see it but probably, someday long in the future.

Definitely

[DefaultThis]

It's like this: downloading a CD off iTunes is not as good as the feeling of holding the CD in your hands. The same goes for books. People prefer something tangible, and so no matter how lazy people get, there is always that semantic feeling of the sense of owning something whether it's a book, a CD or a piece of paper.

I have epilepsy and I know too much time on a computer can cause seizures. Computers are more likely to strain your eyes and cause headaches.

It's a question of how lazy the world gets.

[Iwudstilldie4u]

I feel like all of you are speaking from the perspective of people who are used to using paper (obviously). If you grew up in a time with no paper, you wouldn't say, "Man, this Kindle is annoying! I miss paper books," because that was all you knew. I think future generations will quickly get used to life without paper.

[imtherealdave]

What will people wipe with in a paper free society? :-(

[Neo Cassady]

What will people wipe with in a paper free society? :-(

Bidet. or iCharmin.

[AussieBoy]

as much as trees rock, i would hate not to be draw or write on paper, or sit down n read the sunday papers

[AussieBoy]

What will people wipe with in a paper free society? :-(


hahaha true

maybe an iPoo

[hobointhenite]

*insert micheal scott quote about paper here

[Indoor Living]

*insert micheal scott quote about paper here
Zing.

I don't see the point of the Nook/Kindle. It doesn't seem worth it in a short-term sense at all. Yeah, quite a few people love reading, but there's a large demographic out there that'll read four books on it and go, '200 bucks well spent.'

[sdisticsquirrel]

Nope - Michael Scott will always have a job.
There will always be people who refuse to trust computers for archives, etc.
Paper will be around even after we get flying cars and jetpacks.

[Scrandon]

Toilet paper

[CyberInferno]

Toilet paper
Re-usable washable rags :-| Like a handkerchief for your butt.

[Scrandon]

Re-usable washable rags :-| Like a handkerchief for your butt.

Haha I'll pass

[CyberInferno]

Haha I'll pass
Or there's always the bidet, though those things always scared the crap out of me (no pun intended).

[Scrandon]

:-d

[Burn_Burn_Burn]

I say never..economically, using paper is just more affordable somehow
Or is it?
IDK

[TH1Pool]

I firmly believe someday, but we won't be alive to see it. Sure, a lot of us now are saying we just couldn't bear reading a book or something without being able to physically hold it, or we like to collect vinyl. But these attitudes are just like the generations before us that resisted the digitalization of all the things we have electronically today. People used to say computers will never catch on. Also environmentally, we're going to run out of the source of paper eventually.

[sammyboy516]

no. and i have no problem with it.

[roughroads]

*insert micheal scott quote about paper here

"Limitless paper, in a paperless world"
good nuff?

[hobointhenite]

"Limitless paper, in a paperless world"
good nuff?
just what i was looking for

[Broden Terry]

I can't comprehend a world without paper. It's such a necessity for me personally. I find that I'm quite traditional in that I prefer to handwrite instead of type essays, assignments, reviews and such.

[introduction]

My desk would be so much cleaner...hell, I wouldn't even need a desk.

[roughroads]

just what i was looking for

:beerbros:

[ABoyUnderOath90]

I'm glad to see people are honest with themselves about the use of paper. I don't want to always use it, but I know I always will. =(