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Dreams of a paperless office

Paper as a means of conveying information and authority is so widely used that it is quite hard to imagine a world without it. Sorting, handling, storing, writing on and juggling with paper is the largest industry in Britain, employing thousands of clerks, typists, bookkeepers and executives.

Paper is very, very important to us. But it is equally important to understand that it is not the material itself which occupies such an exalted status in our society, but the information that is inscribed on it. Any other material on which information could be inscribed would,…

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