The Paperless Office and Paperless Society Will Never Happen

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The Paperless Office and the Paperless Society Will Never Happen

With the widespread introduction of computer terminals into offices, and the growing popularity of the personal computer, futurists and computer proponents envisioned the arrival of the “paperless office”. They predicted that in the near future, virtually all paper consumed in offices would be replaced by electronic, computer based mediums. Office workers, who before the advent of the computer relied entirely on typewriters, paper filing systems, and printed documents, could now create, store, and share information using computers. There would be no need to print out documents, because they would be always conveniently available for view using any available computer terminal. Even libraries, which traditionally contain shelves upon shelves of printed books, could be replaced by a large collection of books in electronic form.

There are several main advantages of electronically stored information, as opposed to paper-based information. Content deep within an electronic library can be found using searching algorithms, and a single item within an electronic library can be shared and accessed by a nearly unlimited number of users simultaneously, who can be located in diverse geographic locations. Another advantage of a “paperless society” is environmental in nature: a dependence on paper takes its toll on our world’s forests, which are vital to the planet in many ways, such as providing oxygen, absorbing rainwater, protecting soil, and regulating climate. I would argue, however, that this environmental advantage is somewhat stretched out of proportion by computer advocates, because the manufacture of computers requires natural resources, and there are new environm...

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... Industry Key Statistics As Published by the Pulp and Paper Products Council. American Process Inc. <http://www.americanprocess.com/canadapulp/summary.html>

[v] Statistics Canada CANSIM Data Base. CANSIM is an official Mark of Statistics Canada. Series: C892268, Source: SDDS 3604 DEMOGRAPHY DIVISION

[vi] Statistics Canada CANSIM Data Base. Series: D10505, Source: SDDS 4432 STC (63-016XPB)

[vii] Same as (4).

[viii] Laser Printer History. 4 Apr. 2001. American Calco Inc. <http://www.americancalco.com/history.htm>

[ix] Information Technology and Structural Change of the Global Forest Sector. 28 Feb. 2003. International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis. <http://www.iiasa.ac.at/Research/FOR/it_cons.html>

[x] Healy, Sean. No Technofix for the Third World. 4 Oct. 2001. ZNet. <http://www.zmag.org/sustainers/content/2001-10%5C04healy.cfm>

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