The author reflects on their visit to the Houston Museum of Natural Science, noting the irony of an institution dedicated to physical objects in the fossil record going paperless. They contemplate the role of paper in their own life, using diaries as a personal “paper of the past” and questioning the permanence of digital archives. They discuss their reliance on digital note-taking apps like Apple Notes, acknowledging that these artifacts may be lost in the future. The author also mentions the recent news about the FBI searching the former president’s house for removed records, highlighting the potential power of paper trails. Ultimately, they express their skepticism towards the move to paperless and emphasize the value of paper as a technology.
| Signal | Change | 10y horizon | Driving force |
|---|---|---|---|
| Institutions like museums going paperless | Shift from physical to digital records | Increased reliance on digital archives | Efficiency, sustainability, and convenience |
| Individual preference for digital note-taking | Preference for digital over paper | Decreased use of physical notebooks | Convenience and synchronization |
| FBI retrieving records illegally removed | Potential threat to paper trails | Increased importance of paper as evidence | Accountability and legal purposes |
| Speculation on the move to “paperless” | Concern for loss of paper trail | Continued importance of paper as a record | Preservation of personal memory |
| Personal archives for short-term tracking | Focus on short-term patterns | Ephemeral nature of digital artifacts | Nostalgia for personal history |
| Personal diaries as attempts to create a paper trail | Desire for personal documentation | Continued interest in physical records | Preservation of personal history |