Once upon a time, when people wanted to write something out, there were a number of pre-requirements for this to happen. The first was that they could actually write and read. While it is quite a long time, if we think back 2 000 years, that for a great deal of that 2 000 years (and one does mean a great deal, as in almost 1 200 years) a large number of people could neither read nor write.

Consequently, writing anything took quite considerable skill; not only in the text that was written, but the methodology behind the writing. It is a fact that, for many hundreds of years, the majority of text was written on papyrus and vellum. Paper was first used for writing almost 2 000 years ago, but the paper in use didn’t last very long, simply because it wasn’t very durable by comparison.

Since then, we have moved into the paper and pulp age and beyond, where paper and pulp have become less used than before and widely replaced by pixels on a screen. A problem with the “pixels on a screen” is that they are far less “accidentally preservable” than paper and pulp. Accidental preservation occurs when something does not deteriorate in the natural order of things but is preserved. Equally, much of electronic data is destroyed both by electronic equipment being replaced by newer equipment and old data not being saved and by simple elimination of data with the perception that it is no longer needed.

We don’t know it, but what is going to happen is that “accidentally preserved” information will get less and less, and not bit by bit (Pun! Pun! Ha-ha). It’s extremely unlikely, however, that simple writing such as normal paper handwriting, and so on, will disappear. The advantages of a paper document, which can be stored and reused and reread and passed on to somebody else and ultimately used for something like lighting a bonfire, are manifest.

It’s not likely that this is going to be replaced anytime soon by any other device as simple. So, for the want of anything else, we can guess that paper is here to stay for simple and general use, because, right now, we cannot think of anything to replace it. Another problem with “pixels on a screen” is that they require some kind of artificially powered device to create or use them, unlike the power required by a person to write a brief note on paper.

The world seems to have not grasped the fact that not only is paper documentation not dead, but that it will never die, based on the fact that nobody can think of anything to replace it in a cheap and reasonable way. I have spent a great deal of time trying to work out if we could ever get to a stage where written paper can be completely replaced by some other simple, inexpensive, reusable, multipurpose product.

I am not an expert, and I would be grateful if anybody out there has an idea how such a replacement can be achieved. For the sake of further discussion, I will set out the requirements for the alternative: it must be very easy to use; it must be free of any hazards; it must be cheap; it must be sustainable; it must be easily portable; it must have many alternative uses; it must be relatively durable; and, most important of all, it must be readily available to everyone and have no apparent worth.

Through all this, I cannot think of anybody who has recorded how the common piece of paper came to be used by the masses. There are many intelligent and knowledgeable people who can tell you how paper was invented, and where it came from, and what specialist uses it was put to, but none of them can advise where the commonly used small piece of written note arose.

It’s not important enough for anybody to find out, but it is a fact that no-one can think of any compelling reason for paper’s continued existence.