Paperless: Are We There Yet?

In many parts of the world still there is a long way to go for paperless environment. Besides there is need for paper work for legal requirements

One of the things I have noticed over the years as I have monitored this "mover to the paperless office" is that, since it is so much easier to generate multiple paper copies than it used to be, all of this paper-saving technology has actually INCREASED the use of paper...

Oh, we went paperless in 2003. Oh yea, we generated more paper in 2003 than ever and just continued. So much for paperless. Big joke back then. Today, no idea. I left in 2005 and went back to my roots. 0 paper, all PDF's now.

Some times we find it easier and convenient to refer printed copies than on screen.

The paperless office won't happen until after the paperless bathroom. So there!

In Japan, they have developed the "paperless bathroom", which uses water jets, followed by air jets for drying. I was never brave enough to try one...

Japanese bathroom:

"Use fingers to clean body. Then insert into slot, and fingers will be cleaned."

(Attendant behind wall whacks fingers with hammer.)

(Unsuspecting patron retracts fingers into mouth to assuage pain.)

"See, hand is now clean!"

[The French toilet paper joke is also pretty good....]

While somewhat amusing, I don't think that's a very accurate representation of Japanese culture.

All of the Japanese I know are almost obsessively compulsive regarding hygiene. Those I know are a small sample of the entire society, but I believe it covers a broad cross section.

Hey the paperless bathroom of the future was in Demolition Man.... Remember the 3 shells?

We a not eve close. It is worse than ever. I all most get carpal tunnel syndrome just signing simple legal documents.

Not going to happen any time soon in my neck of the woods. Despite a major government push to go electronic I still sign a stack of documents several feet high every day. (not every page)

I am currently involved in a couple of court proceedings as well. The paper those things generate is insane.

The grand question is: How to preserve information that will survive all of the destructive forces we know about. And included in this puzzle is what information qualifies as deserving of being preserved, in what form is the information to be stored, what medium would be used (to survive), and if some method including all of this is devised, would there by anyone left to decipher it. For instance, suppose there really are records of an ancient civilization, like Atlantis. Depending on what source you query it might be 10,000 years ago. If there was an advanced civilization that long ago, look how long it has taken our species to get to a point where we might be able to decipher any records that were left. Hieroglyphics are a good example. Only certain people with the proper training and intellect would be able to crack the code of a language that is no longer in use. And the big help there was that it is more symbolic (read pictorial based). Language, from that perspective has devolved and is not as robust in the long view.

So. Is electronic storage of information really the most secure from this point of view? I think stone tablets would be better. Engraved metal would be still better.