Is a paperless society ever possible ?

[Sarevok]

Paper sucks. It takes up room and volume. Finding information on written paper is frustrating. Even more annoying having to copy something from paper to paper or type it up. It just downright sucks that even in the IT age there is an ever increasing mountain of paper work. I have no illusion about paper going away anytime in next decade or so. But is there any chance there could be a future world where the volume of paper could be greatly reduced ? Today Electronic styluses, pdas, ebooks etc so many new products are coming along every month. All of them sadly have drawbacks. But could the day come when someone creates an unified system that can replace most paperwork ?

Or will see flying cars before that happens ?

[tim31]

In the course of my daily work, running the end of day audit for a large and busy hotel, I print a ream of A4(500 sheets) every night just for reference so certain tabulated reports(financial summaries, market segments etc) can be restored manually in the unlikely event that the server crashes, the backup server crashes, and the data sticks which are used nightly for a further backup are magically erased in the same event. Oh, and the copies on the Financial Controller's laptop and the IT guy's laptop.

Apparently we're required by legislation to keep all this paperwork for ten years. It takes up enough space that could have been another mid sized hotel room.

[Zixinus]

I can certainly see that electronic data could partly replace paper-management. It's more environmental, its more manageable (with a sufficiently raised knowledge-base) and after the initial investment in hardware, possibly cheaper and more environmental. I doubt paper will be erased entirely from use, but its use would certainly decline (for example, for stuff that doesn't really need to be printed but are anyway for some arbitrary reason such as law or protocol). Of course, there are disadvantages which I would be interested learning about.

I can't say time or date: but personally, I think that getting electronic textbooks is a possible future, along with school-hosted electronic libraries and servers. Initial investment will be large (although I doubt it will be terrible so, as electronics become cheaper trough the years), but not unmanageable.

Here in Hungary, people pay for as much for textbooks a year that you can buy a low-end laptop (think 100$ laptop performance though) or e-book reader for (sometimes even in general school). I am sure that beyond the fancy features, students will appreciate the lighter load (some teachers want a collection of textbooks so large that some are afraid that it will cause back problems in the kids). Among college students, laptops are increasingly common and laptops make a good first computer for many kids today (particularly netbooks I think).

So I wouldn't be surprised that in the semi-far future, kids' first computer will be one given them trough school. Probably something along the lines of a 100$ laptop now, basic, low-performance, sturdy and simple. Probably with a teacher-supervised OS (so no watching porn during lessons) and would have all the texts given trough wireless networks (would certainly help with mandatory reading assignments on longer books whose copyright has expired). Homework could be done with a closed program (to prevent copying and to put the hacking bar to a high enough level that hackers wouldn't bother), but I see a potential necessity for paper there (in at least some areas).

Of course, this does not answer how parents will pay for the textbooks required (although I suspect that electronic textbooks might be cheaper due to the lack of shipping/transporting and printing). However, such a laptop would be an eight year investment (hopefully, given sufficiently sturdy design), so it should pay off, particularly if it would allow more than just a portable book/notebook (personally, I think notebooks are a bit of a relic from the days when textbooks were rare and the teacher had to tell everything from them: I know that I study more from textbooks than ever from my own notes).

Of course, hand-writing and drawing might be slightly problematic and probably would be an area where paper or paper-like material would still dominate. But it is possible that touchscreens/touchpads/echscreens/whateverthefuckthey'recalled would evolve to the point that this too might not be that big of a problem.

[eion]

Apparently we're required by legislation to keep all this paperwork for ten years. It takes up enough space that could have been another mid sized hotel room.

Which shows as always that legislation will always trail behind technology by a good 20 years.

A paperless society is a technical, but not a legal possibility at the moment

[weemadando]

In my job, I am responsible for (among other things) book-keeping at the two Centrelink offices I cover. Like Tim says, there are legislative requirements in Australia to do with maintaining records for tax and audit purposes. And any large business generates a lot of it. I try and work with electronic stuff as much as possible, but the fact remains that people have to "sign off" on everything still, so we still have to end up with a shitload of paper.

[Phantasee]

Paper is easier to read, too. I don't recall the study but it's something like this: If you read on the screen will give you only 60% retention compared to print. I'm not 100% sure of why that is but I've found it's much easier to study notes when they're hard copy.

[Zixinus]

I wonder whether such a legally necessary backup documents could be done with a write-once, secure memory sticks? Reuse could happen with the sticks being erasable only with special hardware.

Paper is easier to read, too. I don't recall the study but it's something like this: If you read on the screen will give you only 60% retention compared to print. I'm not 100% sure of why that is but I've found it's much easier to study notes when they're hard copy.

Does a tech-guru know whether the above complaint (which I do share: reading from paper is more comfortable than from a monitor) can be solved by using a different LCD screen technology?

[Stofsk]

I doubt it has much to do with the screen technology. I think it's more psychological. If you go into 'study mode' or whatever with a hard copy of information you have to read, you're concentrating on retention and comprehension. On screen, it's too easy to alt-tab out of whatever you're doing and find some kind of distraction. Even if you're alt-tabbing from one piece of work to another piece of work, you're still diluting your focus. For example, software developers didn't put tabs in internet browsers so long ago because it was a giant leap for mankind sort of thing, but because people were constantly opening up windows to different sites.

You could be writing a report, an essay or whatever in one program, have a browser open with a dozen sites tabbed (some of which might not be work or study related), and who knows maybe you have a couple folders open or a chat program open too. With so many different things 'on' your focus simply can't be concentrated on a single thing, like it would be if all you had was a book or paper to read through.

[Bedlam]

I think paper has a better long term storage that digital media. Most papers if stored well can last 100+ years, even if stored poorly its likely some infomation can be retained. Most digital media have no where near that storage and digital media are changing every few years both hardware and software so if you need to read your infomration from 20-30 years ago you need to build both a method to read that media if it has survived and the software needed to view the information.

I may be not very computer savie but I always find it easier to keep short term notes and calculations on paper rather than computer even if the final output I'm working on will be via computer.

[Admiral Valdemar]

Paper doesn't need a certification audit to show that it's viable for use at that time. Computers do. In my line of work, there are stories of companies trying to go totally paperless, only to find the FDA or MHRA come down on them when they ask how they know they can trust their computer records and systems.

Additionally, paper doesn't worry about hardware compatibility or power requirements and is far cheaper to produce and store. I'd like to see a day when I don't need to do any printing or scanning at all, but it's not happening in biotech or any science any time soon, if at all.

[Rogue 9]

Hopefully never. I like reading books in dead tree format.

For record-keeping, sure, that'd be great. In fact, I was just wishing yesterday for the Library of Congress's archives of old political papers (specifically personal letters of William Porcher Miles at the time, though they'd be infinitely useful for any number of purposes other than the one I had to hand at the moment) to be digitized and placed online for research purposes, but if I'm sitting down to read rather than to search for information, I much prefer a book.

[Haruko]

Oh, my, this reminds me that I read an article by Malcolm Gladwell (the author of The Tipping Point, and New Yorker contributor) titled "The Social Life of Paper." The importance for this topic is that it attempts to explain why society will continue to be paper-full. The author uses the example of the continued extensive use of paper by the air traffic controller to start. Interesting read.

[Lord Pounder]

I have 10 years admin experience, including several stints temping for the civil service. I wish a paperless office could be achieved but I don't see it as likely due to a deeply ingrained distrust of technology at higher management levels, especially in the civil service.

I even tried to go paperless at home, requesting e-bills where ever possible, selling my dead tree books and getting an e-reader, yet I still get an endless amount of paper through my door from the dole office and other government agencies, much of which I can not recycle yet as its needed.

[Singular Quartet]

Hell, even retail has its huge supply of paper that needs to be kept. I work in a mid-size retailer, and we have FOUR lateral file cabinets full of paperwork, and a few book shelves full of binders. I've got a single drawer just for my stuff (I work as the store technition) and I have to keep all the customer paperwork for three years. That's one lateral file, and a good-damn supply of file boxes, because I need signatures on everything. Hell, my notes on what I've done are all on paper, and I have to keep those, too. Would I like this mess to be paperless? Yes. Is that going to happen? No, because we need signatures, and our system sucks.

[Zixinus]

On the subject of signatures, how do banks handle identity-verification? I recall a scene (from Washabi, I think) where for withdrawal, a character had to sign a digital signature. Are those so unreliable?

[eion]

Hell, even retail has its huge supply of paper that needs to be kept. I work in a mid-size retailer, and we have FOUR lateral file cabinets full of paperwork, and a few book shelves full of binders. I've got a single drawer just for my stuff (I work as the store technition) and I have to keep all the customer paperwork for three years. That's one lateral file, and a good-damn supply of file boxes, because I need signatures on everything. Hell, my notes on what I've done are all on paper, and I have to keep those, too. Would I like this mess to be paperless? Yes. Is that going to happen? No, because we need signatures, and our system sucks.

The distinction that needs to be made is how much of that paper is a legal requirement and how much is due to technology limitations.

To de-paperize your setup, you'd need a digital signature pad (or some manner of digital identity system, whether that be cryptologic, biometric, or what-have you), a notation system for notes, customer database, and multiple backups (1 active, 1 onsite, 1 offsite).
I suspect that a lot of the paper in your case is there by legal requirement, rather than technical limitation.

[Zor]

Paper is easier to read, too. I don't recall the study but it's something like this: If you read on the screen will give you only 60% retention compared to print. I'm not 100% sure of why that is but I've found it's much easier to study notes when they're hard copy.

And here i thought that it was just a minor personnal thing that i had an easier time reading books than their exact online equivelents.

Zor

[aerius]

On the subject of signatures, how do banks handle identity-verification? I recall a scene (from Washabi, I think) where for withdrawal, a character had to sign a digital signature. Are those so unreliable?

PINs and other other forms of security & authentication are fine at the time they're done, the problem is what happens if a couple months down the road, the records that the bank has doesn't match what you did.

Say I go withdrawal $100 from my bank account, and a few months later the bank says I withdrew $1000 thanks to a software bug or data error. If I have a signed paper receipt from the bank I can bring that in and get my account straightened out. The problem a paperless society faces is figuring out a way to generate the electronic equivalent of that piece of paper. Until someone gets that problem solved it's not happening.