8.02.2006
Paperless Moon
NASA is on a mission to save space.It's not what you think. Our sometimes nimble space agency has created Lunar e-Library -- a searchable DVD compilation of Moon mission history, including a complete set of the Apollo mission and science reports, flight evaluations, lunar studies, experiments and data, historical documents, interviews and much more. (collectSPACE via a Dan Schrimpsher dateline.
A ton of bulky, dusty NASA Moon mission records now in handy electronic format. Nifty. And just in time for Project Orion.
Why can't lawyers do this sort of thing? Wouldn't it be great to gather and keep all case files and client documents on disks and toss the paper? I am all for eliminating paper to the fullest extent possible. As many have said for decades, the law office should go paper-lite if not paperless. Save the sliced dead trees delivered in trucks for origami. (There's just no good way to fold a flash disk.)
The office is just a start. One big push would be if all courts and regulatory agencies required e-filings. Other paper stuff lawyers love such as money, magazines and newspapers should be all electronic, all the time. And kids will easily adapt to an unpapered world. Soon, games like "rock paper scissors" will be updated ("rock disk scissors"). At home, toilet paper, tissues and napkins... well, never mind. Certain paper requirements will just have to wait until someone invents the right nanomaterials.
But really, seems to me a printed item's tangibility (palpability, tactility, tangibleness, touchableness, you know) is overrated.
By the way, here's the ABA saying a paperless office is 90 percent mental, 50 percent physical. I don't know what that means but as a lawyer, the math sounds about right. And here's more on the digital law office.
Sure. Any day now.
By the way, NASA's Lunar E-library is free and folks can order it by filling out two forms. Yes, those are online forms.
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(Image credit: Modular origami sphere, Prof. Thomas Hull. Neat, isn't it?)
