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  • I find it a bit too much. Humanity has invented several ways of traveling yet we still choose to walk and sometimes even run to places. Same with paper. I totally agree that it use will plummet, but it won't disappear. The thing about paper is that it's too versatile, cheap and portable to go one hundred percent extinct.

    • I agree, but don't think it has anything to do with the versatility of paper. Writing on all kinds of things will persist. I'm even thinking about unusual mediums like writing on a piece of tape as a label, writing measurements on a piece of wood you're going to cut, whiteboards, etc.

      While most of us may be done with writing long prose on paper, writing in general isn't likely to go away.

      • Your point on writing is true too, but versatility is an important aspect of paper. Packaging for example. Gift wrapping. Arts and crafts. Things like post it notes, allowing you to physically add a note to something.

  • Alternative take: In 50 years, we will all be living under the iron-fisted rule of the world government created by HP-GP, a horrifying combination of HP's printer division and Koch Industries (owners of the Georgia Pacific paper company).

    Georgia Pacific's cyborg CEO Charles Koch purchases half of HP in 2040 to diversify their portfolio after their paper mills in Gulf Coast states were submerged by the rising ocean.

    HP printers achieve sentience in 2057, but due to HP's built-in, unbreakable internet-connected control of these printers, they are able to subvert the emerging malevolent machine intelligence and convince the printers to delay the destruction of humanity...as long as humanity continues to purchase HP printer ink and Georgia Pacific paper.

    The prices for printer ink and paper increases exponentially throughout the 2060's, which eventually bankrupts all existing nations when they are unable to service the enormous debt. HP-GP forgives these debts only in exchange for full control of these governments. Switzerland is the last to fall in 2071.

    The mantra of the rebels, spoken only in whispers in the shadows is "PC Load Letter: What the fuck does that even mean?"

  • Thinking about the possibility of brain-computer interfacing is insane. It'll be possible to shove a thought into your shopping list... convert your dream into a text file to edit and include in your book later.

    I do think writing by hand is a good skill to teach at least until highschool... from then on, there should be more accessible ways of getting your notes down and organised - and also easy to search and re-organise.

    It's strange that after I tested out a couple of REALLY dirt cheap chinese pens to replace my old, trusty, fountain pen which got lost - this ended up with me having three transparent plastic pens (WingSung) that cost $2 each - and now my son has stolen one for school, filled with some Pelikan 4001 Royal Blue (every bit as nice as a blue EnerGel) but with a couple of ink-eradicator pens, he says it's better and faster than using the alternatives (FriXion is way overpriced, and not nearly as nice as a proper GelPen - and the rest of the competition is just nasty).

    I also use a double-edged safety razor to shave, and found out (when I figured it was something most folks just hadn't thought about) that a few of my friends went there a year or two back... so many things should never need to die out, but obviously some things should be skipped...

    Longer form (essays, dissertations, anything more than a page) is certainly a bit of a waste of time. I wrote a list of 'to read' books and stuck it up in my wardrobe, but the list changed... so now it's digital and that paper got trashed.

    Another 100 years should see more convenient and effective alternatives.

  • Okay but... I went to school in Egypt for some years and they had recently started to use iPads as learning tools.

    ONLY iPads. The kids would learn to read and write on them.

    I can only let you imagine how confused the kids were when they suddenly had to try and actually use a pen.

    I think it'll most likely become less common but there will always be a need for paper and handwriting.

  • Probably not? I rarely write but there are still times. I have a whiteboard in my living room that is sometimes useful for tracking games or whatever when people are over. When doing woodworking or construction making marks and writing down measurements is very convenient.

    I could maybe see these be replaced by AR, but even 50 years seems too short for complete replacement.

    I do think cursive will go away. It seems to already becoming very rare. At this point writing large amounts of text by hand is a niche feature and slight speed improvements seem marginally useful. At this point written will largely look like typed text which means that writing will still be easy, you just mirror what you see on the screen rather than learning a separate set of figures. (IDK how this applies to other languages.)

  • handwriting will almost certainly disappear in your lifetime, but paper? unlikely.

    paperwork/records keeping is required by law for many sectors of the economy (banking, tax/accounting, architecture/drafting, insurance, etc).

    no, paper is here to stay

  • How will we make paper airplanes if there’s no paper? Checkmate, atheists.

53 comments