In a message dated 12/16/00 7:57:44 AM Central Standard Time, asa@nada.kth.se
writes:
> but then again, remember the "paperless office".
Amen! My work generates a HUGE amount of paper, a fact that I've been
focusing on intensely as I have become involved in a new business enterprise
that directly addresses the use of paper versus other means of communicating
information in the legal profession (www.powerbrief.com). It's a well-known
fact that the electronic office of the 1960s-1990s ended up generating MORE
rather than fewer paper documents. Given the technologies we've had
available, paper documents have been the most efficient means of recording
and communicating information, with PCs, fax machines and photocopiers only
making them more so. I've concluded that until we get a display technology
that exceeds the utility of sheets of paper, we'll only be making matters
worse with each advance in data storage and handling that we develop.
Obviously this isn't an insight unique to me. But until it's addressed, much
of the benefit of new media of communication will continue to choke at the
bottleneck of display technology. The more I think about it, the more
convinced I am that this problem is very analogous to the "last mile" problem
in network technology: There's a pinch-point at the final interface between
the systems of information handling we're developing and our brains.
Obviously CRTs cannot compete with paper for portability. Light, flat-screen
notebook computers are better, but not by nearly enough. They're expensive,
still too heavy and bulky, take too long to boot up and be usable in the
immediate, ad-hoc world of meetings and business interaction and are too
difficult to use to manipulate large amounts of information in a very
flexible way.
We're going to have these problems until we find something significantly
better than paper.
Greg Burch <GBurch1@aol.com>----<gburch@lockeliddell.com>
Attorney ::: Vice President, Extropy Institute ::: Wilderness Guide
http://users.aol.com/gburch1 -or- http://members.aol.com/gburch1
ICQ # 61112550
"We never stop investigating. We are never satisfied that we know
enough to get by. Every question we answer leads on to another
question. This has become the greatest survival trick of our species."
-- Desmond Morris
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