The Paperless Office

Sumer was civilization of clay. They made thier buildings of it and wrote on it, too. Their statues were of gypsum, which dissolves in water. So the buildings and statues have since fallen apart under the elements. But the clay tablets were either baked or else buried in jars. So all the data of the Sumerians have survived. Egypt left a legacy of art and architecture; Sumer's legacy is its megabytes.

Snow Crash

The introduction of the personal computer was thought to eliminate the need for paper, because all the information could be manipulated and saved on the machine.  Thus, filing cabinents and other office supplies could also be cut out (or at least reduced) from the company budget.  With networked computers, information workers spend more time in front of the screen and managers receive their reports by e-mail.

Furthermore. Subscribers have moved away from printed media.  Audiences watch movies onDemand.  Holiday wellwishers send e-greetings.  Banks electronically update statments.  Plastic has replaced paper money.  Apple rolls out iLife.

The paper trail has evaporated into digits.  Our relationships are invisible from others and our existence is concealed from the future.  We are the civilization of electrons; and the electric charges eventually dissipate in digital memory.  What will be the legacy of the World Wide Web if all our megabytes are effervescing electrons?  We seem to value the timeliness of information over the timelessness of it.

B.Tan