Countryboy, I can see paper going out of fashion eventually. People do more and more of the reading on the internet these days, that is one of the reasons why so many newspapers are in trouble.
Anything that is put on paper can be put on the internet much more cheaply and in a much more convenient manner. While reading will continue, eventually witting by hand will become a lost art, will simply remain a curiosity.
Already people have lost the art of doing calculations in their head. When I went to the university, we did not have any calculators, we used slide rules. But slide rule doesn’t do additions and subtractions we had to do that manually. Even today I do them without the help of the calculator. But since calculators are readily available, it has become a lost art.
For instance, I wonder how many can divide say, 10,457 by 239 by hand, without the help of a calculator. I don’t know if they even teach that in schools these days, calculators are so readily available.
I expect hand writing will go the same way. That is progress.
Yes and it's a bit of a hoot when one is in a store making a purchase and the power goes out (happens out here in the woods now and again). The cashiers - especially the younger ones - are pretty much disabled at that point. They can't make change because nobody ever taught them to count. The little screen that tells them what to do is blank, and so is the look in their eyes. Kind of sad to witness an attack of "dysfunctionality" so up close and personal.
Yes, I'm also from the "old school" and during a summer job I once had, we had to calculate an 11% "hidden" federal sales tax on products. In our heads. And it wasn't on the selling price, it was on the cost price. Which was buried in a bunch of codes stamped here and there on the products. And we had to do in front of the commercial customers, who were tax-exempt. Good brain exercise.
I honestly question whether or not computers are cheaper than paper. They eat energy, a book doesn't. Hell, they might even eat brain cells but the jury is still out on that...no stats yet! Plus, there is the capital cost of the equipment to consider, not to mention all the time wasted to make things right when a freeze-up or melt-down occurs. We have convinced ourselves that we can't live without them and that they are real time-saving devices, but I think many of these claims are overstated in that the "true" costs are buried in many different places.
No question they do save time and allow all kinds of processing of information in a big hurry (I have 2 complete systems, one of which runs a business or two) and I've been around them since the days of the big, room-filling tape drives. But, I view them with a bit of a jaundiced eye when it comes to the real value of them. I think it's one of those "can't live with them and can't live without them" things.
Hand writing has been on the outs for some years now. No surprise there. I think we are losing something more than just the handwriting itself...perhaps a touch or two of "civility", for lack of a better word. And large doses of civility can even prevent wars, so I do put a value on it.
If we were discussing the military, I might use the analogy that we are all quite satisfied with the tactics, a bit less clear on the strategy, and don't have a clue about the objective. Or, as someone once said (can't remember who): "Having lost sight of our objectives, we redoubled our efforts." I might put in more bluntly: "If you don't know where the hell you're going, it's doubtful that you'll get there."
No question, time marches on but are we really progressing? It all depends on one's point of view, I suppose. The Romans thought they were fairly progressive too, but the excesses (and perhaps an inability to look at themselves objectively) eventually did them in.
Progess? Hmm...toward what goal?
:-?
