History Main / NoPaperFuture

* In the space arc of ''Webcomic/ArthurKingOfTimeAndSpace'' (at least in [[http://www.arthurkingoftimeandspace.com/0873.htm this strip]]), Arthur and Guenevere don't even know what paper ''is''. Note, though, that [[RuleOfFunny the strip is inconsistent about this]].
* ''Webcomic/DarthsAndDroids'', being a ''Franchise/StarWars'' parody, has this. [[http://www.darthsanddroids.net/episodes/1763.html Apparently,]] this is because paper in the ''Star Wars'' universe is ''evil''. [[http://www.arthurkingoftimeandspace.com/0375.htm A much earlier strip]] shows Arthur barely avoiding doing a hefty load of literal paperwork.

* ''Manga/GhostInTheShell'' has a near absence of all books and papers in physical form, to the point where libraries are only maintained as historical archives. When paper is seen, the text is often barcodes. In fact, the lack of physical hard copies of information becomes a plot point several times throughout the series. In a world where EverythingIsOnline, and skilled hackers lurk everywhere, how can you ''really'' be sure the records you're reading are the truth and not just a well-written fabrication?
* ''Anime/CowboyBebop'' keeps the paper, but apparently mostly gets rid of paper money. Outside of a betting pool being run in the episode "Heavy Metal Queen", physical cash is never seen. Whenever the people pay, they use credit cards. One episode featured not only a set of criminals who had hacked their way into the paperless money system by planting a virus in the automated hyperspace gate toll system that robbed people blind as they passed, but also had an executive with the company annoyed that some of those defrauded sent in complaints on paper letters, something he considered "harassment, it's a waste of resources". Though they were on Mars...
* The sufficiently future setting of ''Anime/SkyGirls'' has normal computers and papers...that has a scrolling function much like flexible, ultrathin tablet [=PCs=].
* ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'' is only TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture, but paper has been largely eliminated. Almost every student brings a laptop to class, and Madoka is shown doing English homework on a computer. Even the whiteboard is digitized, though this isn't obvious until the entire thing scrolls sideways to show a new page. For all Kyubey's talk of "contracts," there is no paper or signing involved. The only actual paper shown is Madoka's notebook, which she apparently just uses for doodling, and a wall calendar. None of this has much bearing on the story, though; and [[CellPhonesAreUseless cellphones are hand-waved into irrelevance]]. Smartphones finally appear in the sequel movie.

* The 30th century depicted in DC's ''Comicbook/LegionOfSuperHeroes'' is generally paperless. In the BeachEpisode issue ''Legionnaires'' #77, when the Legion visits a resort planet, one character remarks on the "old-fashioned paper money" she's received for her winnings in a casino.

* Usually played straight in the ''Fanfic/{{Bait and Switch|STO}}''-{{verse}}, with characters usually using [[DataPad PADDs]]. Hard-copy documents, such as Eleya's commission as a lieutenant commander and CO of the USS ''Kagoshima'' at the end of "Fanfic/TheUniverseDoesntCheat", are typically printed on "archival plastic", which is apparently nearly indestructible. However there's a brief moment in chapter two of ''Bait and Switch'' where an admiral crumples a report and chucks it over a railing, where it bounces off a Breen's helmet. Queried about that in the ''VideoGame/StarTrekOnline'' Foundry mission for which the fic is a novelization, the author cited RuleOfFunny: "You can't crumple a PADD."
* ''Fanfic/Plan7Of9FromOuterSpace'' goes into TechnologyPorn detail describing the ZeeRust 'work console' of a CEO, concluding with "There were no pens, notepads, or sticky yellow reminder notes — such things had become obsolete in the modern paperless office."

* Subtly parodied in ''Film/StarTrekInsurrection'' where we see Picard at a desk... piled high with [=PADDs=].
* Totally inverted in ''Film/{{Brazil}}'', in which the semi-futuristic dystopian society uses nothing ''but'' paper. The world is full of giant printing presses and those pneumatic tubes that are in drive-thru banks. [[spoiler:That's not what "information retrieval" means, though; it's a [[UnusualEuphemism euphemism for torture]].]] Most of the plot is brought about by a fly flying into an ''automatic typewriter'', causing it to type one letter wrong and [[spoiler:therefore sentence the wrong man to death]].
* ''Franchise/StarWars'', at least in the movies, as [[http://www.darthsanddroids.net/episodes/0159.html pointed out]] in ''Webcomic/DarthsAndDroids''. There is absolutely no paper in the original or prequel trilogy of ''Star Wars''; even flat-panel displays are a rarity, mostly reserved for space ship cockpits. Instead most of the communication and information-storage is done with holograms.
** One deleted scene from ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'' shows that the Rebels used a warning on paper stuck on a door that leads to a room in which they had trapped a Wampa. As the main characters escape the base, Threepio rips off the paper so the Stormtroopers will barge in there unaware. The scene was cut because of this trope.
** The ExpandedUniverse sometimes uses paper-like materials and writing utensils for using them, but it's something called "flimsiplast" or "flimsi". Unlike paper it's completely reusable, snaps back from being crumpled if it's smoothed out, and dissolves in water. There's also a similar reusable material called "durasheet", popular among students passing notes because not long after being written on, any messages fade.
** The trope is played absolutely straight in the [[Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse Expanded Universe]] novel ''Literature/NewJediOrder: Refugee''. Requesting access to a Chiss library to find a specific world, the characters are shown shelves of objects described in the most absolutely vague terms--shaped like a brick, etc. After puzzling over it for a moment, wondering if it's some kind of [[Franchise/StarTrek PADD]] or digital display, another character flips open the cover, showing the object to be a book. They are absolutely baffled--not at the concept of a book, but in storing information in a system that is so hard to search. Once informed of the benefits (a power outage will not cut off information access, just for example), they gradually adapt, though they still find it a mind-numbing task to search.
** In ''Literature/GalaxyOfFear'', finding a library stocked with paper books is treated as slightly absurd. The protagonists have only seen such things in museums.
** In ''VideoGame/StarWarsTheOldRepublic'', there is a quest on Taris about ownership of a certain piece of land. One of the sides claims they have a deed for that land ancient enough to be in printed form.
** Some books appear in ''Film/TheLastJedi'', but they're millennia-old artifacts of the old Jedi Order. Despite being from a rundown backwater, Rey shows every indication of understanding what it is, suggesting books are mostly gone, but not forgotten.
* In ''Film/BackToTheFuturePartII'', people interact with several objects using their thumbrint. We can see Biff paying the taxi fare by applying his thumb on some sort of portable paying machine. He gets a paper receipt. Interestingly, it appears that the receipt that Marty got for the Sports Almanac was made of plastic. On the other hand, future Marty got fired by fax machine. The store clerk who sells Marty the almanac implies that by 2015 books are no longer printed on paper. Since the almanac has sports scores up to the year 2000, this suggests printed books stopped being made between 2001 and 2015.

* ''Film/DemolitionMan'' had fun with this one. Characters use tablets and nobody writes anything down. Even ''toilet paper'' is considered obsolete and has been replaced with [[NoodleImplements the three seashells]]. The only things that are still printed on paper are fines for swearing, which John initially uses in lieu of toilet paper.

* ''Film/Fahrenheit4512018'': All transactions are done digitally by verification with one's fingerprints. Therefore dissidents are punished with getting their prints burned off by cauterization, effectively cutting off access to society.

* In many end times novels based on Christian eschtalogy (especially Darbyist varieties), like ''Literature/LeftBehind'', it is always a given that the economy is being moved in this direction, so as to make the implementation of The Mark Of The Beast easier, due to a line in Literature/TheBible about one needing to have a mark on the head or right hand present to buy or sell, thus obviating the need for paper money.
* Most of the paperlessness of J. D. Robb's ''Literature/InDeath'' novels, set in the late 2050s and early 2060s, is fairly reasonable: paper is available but is not commonly used, having been replaced by the convenience of electronic media, and some characters still prefer paper books to electronic readers. However, paper money and coinage have been entirely replaced by credit... and since this includes small "credit chips" that apparently have the ''exact function and appearance'' of metal coins, one wonders why Robb bothered.
** In addition, the chips are one single denomination, rather than the vast amount of denominations used by US cash.

* In the ''Literature/{{Uplift}}'' series, all aliens, and even humans, use the Great Library and compatible software instead of paper. In ''Infinity's Shore'' Gillian Baskin, the commander of the ''Streaker'' learns of the native Jijoan method of storing information on paper, and Gillian spends a few moments pondering the espionage opportunities.
** The Jijoans, a loose alliance of six species who [[SpaceAmish abdicated technology]], including some humans, didn't have any means of storing information before the human settlers arrived and introduced paper. Because the other five races had all been given Galactic level technology when Uplifted and knew nothing of any tech between stone age and Galactic.
** The forward to ''Contacting Aliens'', in-universe a guide for Terragen Intelligence Agents, states that it is written in an old-fashioned paper book specifically because Galactics wouldn't recognize it as a form of data representation. Ironically it's now available as an e-book.
* ''Literature/TheThreeBodyProblem'': Inverted during Death's End [[spoiler: when The Earth Civilization Museum stores information by carving characters onto the surface of Pluto in order to have it last for geographical eons after the fall of humanity]]
* In ''Literature/TheHandmaidsTale'', TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture, paper still exists but paper money disappeared before the dystopia came into existence. It actually made things a lot easier when it was suddenly decided that women could not own property or have a job.
* In the ''Literature/QuadrailSeries'' by Creator/TimothyZahn, set in the late 21st century, paper money appears to have vanished - the stated means of exchange consist of credit transfers or the "cash stick", which appears to be a USB drive-type object that you can upload to and download from virtual sums of money. Books have been replaced with multimedia devices known as "readers." The readers even avert EverythingIsOnline since rather than downloading content wirelessly it must be loaded onto some kind of data card or chip.
* Subverted in Creator/StanislawLem's ''Memoirs Found in a Bathtub'' (''Pamiętnik znaleziony w wannie''): the preface talks about how Earth history from roughly the late 20th-early 22nd century was all but lost by the destruction of all paper-based records ("papyralysis") due to something (it's unclear whether it's a microorganism or not) brought back from a Uranus mission-- which also contributed to the downfall of world civilization of that era.
* ''The Doppleganger Gambit'', a 1979 proto-CyberPunk PoliceProcedural by Lee Killough, centers around someone finding a [[UnPerson member of the underclass]] who resembled him, and hiring him to wear a fake thumbprint and spend a day with his credit card, making public, traceable transactions, to cover up a murder. The UnPerson's payment wasn't in cash: it was getting to keep the items he purchased.

** Ridcully is Archchancellor and supposedly an administrator, and "has always wanted a paperless office," but the Disc is just getting its Industrial Age underway and so paper is, of course, widely used. Ridcully gets rid of papers he doesn't feel like dealing with by locking them in a cabinet and throwing them out the window at night. Ponder Stibbons winds up handling a lot of the paperwork Ridicully ignores.
** When he is [[TyrantTakesTheHelm briefly promoted to captain]] Fred Colon achieves a paperless City Watch by burning all the paperwork and refusing to accept any further forms or memos.
* In ''Literature/ReturnFromTheStars'' paper books have been phased out; instead they are recorded on tiny crystals and can be read when the crystal is inserted into what resembles a modern-day e-book reader (note that the novel has been written in 1961). Paper books are only found in antique shops and mostly include children's literature.
* Discussed a little, but averted, in ''Literature/StarTrekVanguard'', when Pennington reads a newspaper:
-->"Print is dead."\\
"Sure it is. They've been saying that for more than two centuries. Yet here it is in my hand, defying all predictions of its demise".
* In ''Literature/MementoNora'' by Angie Smibert, which takes place TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture (it is never stated when the book takes place, but 9/11 is considered the not so distant past), people use TFC points, earned when one goes to the Therapeutic Forgetting Center to have their memories erased. Only poor people use paper money.
* ZigZagged in ''Literature/HonorHarrington''. Quite a bit of information is passed back and forth digitally, including financial transactions. At the same time, characters will occasionally carry hard copies of important information for various reasons. Money is occasionally seen being transported on small digital media devices not entirely unlike flash memory cards, typically attached to a printed document from the bank vouching for the veracity and contents of the chip. It is also made clear that the digital nature of paperwork has not significantly reduced the ''volume'' of paperwork. The earlier books went into some detail on the grim duty of reading the daily dispatches, in the form of a long series of digital documents that had to be acknowledged individually after being read. One officer decides to cheer up his commanding officer by putting a dispatch with particularly good news at the bottom of the stack so that she would end the chore on a high note.
* Enforced in universe in ''Literature/TheFearIndex'' as Hoffmann's company moto includes "In the Future companies won't use paper!" So he insists that no paper be allowed on the property or they'll be fined. However he collects rare first edition books.
* Mentioned in Charles Stross's ''Literature/{{Accelerando}}'', where the protagonist of the first part sees someone's home library and muses on the almost shocking retro-novelty of data stored in "kilograms per megabyte" instead of the reverse, because he's such a dedicated futurist and wanderer who has no room to store much information in something as inefficient as a book.
** In ''Literature/{{Glasshouse}}'', a drawback of purely digital records is shown: the backstory of the setting involves a war and a computer worm named Curious Yellow that not only affects computers but people's minds. As a result of the worm, there's a part of recent history where people have no idea what really happened because the worm erased all digital records and memories that would explain who released it, why they did it, and what information it targeted. People know that someone won the war, but haven't the vaguest idea who it was or what they were fighting for, even if they remember actually fighting in it.
* Creator/TerryBrooks notes how bad this can be in ''Literature/TheVoyageOfTheJerleShannara'' trilogy. [[spoiler:The library they're looking for is entirely paperless, and thus they have no way to remove the information.]]
* In the 1950s short story "Business as Usual in Times of Transition" a department store trying to adapt to the sudden introduction of {{Matter Replicator}}s stops accepting cash after a customer duplicates a large pile of bills and [[MoneyToBurn uses them as cigar lighters]]. Instead they hand out credit cards (at the time of writing issued by and only usable with specific retailers) to everyone.
* Played with in ''Literature/MasterOfFormalities'' (all we know is that it takes place over 2000 [[AlternativeCalendar after the Terran Exodus]]), where "papers" sure look and feel like genuine paper (or cardboard, or parchment, depending on one's social standing), except they're actually highly-advanced tablets that utilize nanotech and can be interacted with using either a "quill" (probably some kind of stylus) or one's finger. It's ''very'' difficult to damage or even permanently bend them, except for the three pre-designed folds that allow the papers to be put away into a pocket.
* ''Literature/TheLockedTomb'': Zig-zagged in the spacefaring setting. Electronic records and communications are widely used, but so is a non-biodegradable "flimsy" for both printing and handwriting. Paper is available, but comes across as archaic or particularly formal.
* In ''[[Creator/JanuszZajdel Paradyzja]]'' No Paper Future is actually [[JustifiedTrope justified]] - the eponymous SpaceStation holds a PeoplesRepublicOfTyranny where print and writing is illegal (a character is mentioned to have learned reading and writing from imported gum wrappers), because it would make more work for the automated censorship system. Everywhere else people use paper freely - the protagonist is a writer, researching Paradyzja for a book. They confiscate his notebooks and only allow a dictaphone in.

* ''Series/AlmostHuman'': Paper is, for the most part, not used in 2048. Screens are everywhere, and virtual post-it notes replace the real thing. [[Creator/KarlUrban Kennex]] is once shown writing on something and then mimicking a throwing gesture at a virtual wall, causing a colorful post-it to appear on it.

** Subverted in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E8SilenceInTheLibrary "Silence in the Library"]]/[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E9ForestOfTheDead "Forest of the Dead"]]: The Library is the largest one in the entire universe, comprising the surface of an ''entire planet'', with its core containing digital backups of every text stored within and having an artificial moon in orbit serving as debugging software to keep the computer systems running smoothly. It's explained that the reason it's filled with good old-fashioned paper books is the result of a recurring fad, since although the technology keeps improving, such as e-books and "fiction mists", nothing can replace "the smell of books" in the consciousness of the human race. The builders even deforested and pulped an entire world to create enough paper for the books... which in hindsight, turned out to be a ''[[NightmareFuel horrible]]'' mistake.
** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS37E7Kerblam "Kerblam!"]]: Yaz and Ryan find it odd that, in a corporation where everything is stored electronically, executive Slade needs a clipboard and filing cabinet. [[spoiler:When asked, Slade explains that he thought the [[AIIsACrapshoot System was responsible for all the employee disappearances]], so he was keeping a log that no one else could access.]]
* In ''Series/LaFemmeNikita'' Section One operates without a single piece of paper within their organization. All data is either emailed, put on a hologram, a laptop, or a tablet.
* Played with in ''Series/{{Firefly}}''; in one scene in the pilot, the gangster Badger holds up a sheet of paper...to reveal that its actually an active computerized display of scrolling text. Of course, paper money itself is still used, and actual paper documents are used repeatedly, but the paper itself has become much more versatile.

* In an episode of ''Series/{{Journeyman}}'', the protagonist ends up accidentally leaving his digital camera in the 70s, where it's found and reverse-engineered to jump-start another computer revolution. He goes back to his work at the newspaper. His boss hands him a sheet of paper that has a ''video playing'' on it. The protagonist's reaction is "what am I supposed to do with this?" Also, all computers have holographic screens. He likes this more advanced world but still ends up hitting the ResetButton because the same computer revolution resulted in his son never being born (he was about to do his wife, when he got a call about a malfunction of the new systems), replaced with a daughter.
* A one-off character's collection of about two dozen hardback books was used as an EstablishingCharacterMoment in ''Series/StarCops''. The exact status of print media back on Earth was never really spelled out, but the cost of shipping items off-world is such that you have to be a dedicated bibliophile, extremely rich or both to even contemplate bringing your collection to the Moon with you.
* In the ''Series/StargateSG1'' episode "2010", which is set TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture (at the time of airing) after Earth has made an alliance with an advanced alien race, cash and cards have apparently been replaced with fingerprint scanners.

** ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' predicts tablets and e-books, though each device seems to programmed only for a single function or to contain a single document. Paper books are treated as treasured collector's items or old-fashioned indulgences.
** In the ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' episode "The Muse," Jake Sisko is encouraged by an alien entity to write on paper, something which Jake said he'd never done. In "What You Leave Behind," however, the peace treaty that ends the Dominion War is written on a piece of paper and signed with an actual pen. Through this we learn the the Female Changeling is a Southpaw.
** The season two premiere of ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'' sees Daniels (and Archer) find themselves in a screwed-up version of Earth's 31st century. Daniels' greatest shock is reserved for the discovery that the (abandoned) library has physical books; in his version of the time period, it's all on computer.
** On ''Series/StarTrekDiscovery'' Tilly is amazed that Burnham owns an paper book, in this case a copy of ''Literature/AlicesAdventuresInWonderland'', a gift from her foster mother.

* ''ComicStrip/{{Dilbert}}'' had a strip dedicated to mildly deconstructing the "paperless office." Cue panels showing engineers with notes written up and down their arms and an ultimate panel where the topic of the meeting is "the bathroom problem."
* ''ComicStrip/{{Bizarro}}'' had a Sunday strip several years ago, entitled something like "Three More Signs of a Paperless Economy." The kicker? The third panel shows a bathroom stall with a monitor showing an image of a roll of toilet paper!

* Zig-Zagged in ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'', a galaxy with plenty of SchizoTech. While dataslates are fairly prevalent, paper records, including books and scrolls are also quite common. Case in point: the Administratum, the monolithic bureaucracy managing the Imperium of Man, has entire ''planets'' devoted to keeping archives of files, staffed with countless scribes, servitors, and mono-task servo skulls constantly writing down everything on scrolls, and libraries (forbidden, of course; knowledge begets heresy) filled with rows upon rows of dusty ancient tomes, scrolls, and datatomes. And this takes place in the 41st millennium. Some planets are almost at civil war just over the little space that is left to put paper!
* The ''TabletopGame/{{Cyberpunk}} 3.0'' RPG used this as the reason for the change in the setting from that in ''Cyberpunk 2020''. All the world's records were held online, and a ComputerVirus scrambled all the data. It got to the point where the game is set in the year "303x", because all the calendars were scrambled too.
* On most civilized planets in ''TabletopGame/{{Traveller}}'' transactions tend to be electronic. And physical Imperial Credit banknotes on the worlds that use them are made of plastic too. Though, due to the complications of interstellar banking without a SubspaceAnsible most spacers carry cash, or trade goods, preferably ones that will be more valuable at their destination.
* One ''TabletopGame/D20Modern'' setting option, [=CyberRave=] (basically ''Shadowrun''), has the Wealth score now covered entirely by digital currency, as the near-future economy has gone entirely paperless to discourage the BlackMarket and illegal trades exactly as described above. Except players also have a "Grey Wealth" score that represents access to physical objects and old currency still accepted as a medium for exchange in the underground economy - stuff like precious metals, disposable consumer electronics, and so on. This is TruthInTelevision, as goods like prepaid cell phone time cards, gift cards, and even [[http://nymag.com/news/features/tide-detergent-drugs-2013-1/ laundry detergent]] are already used to launder money or trade straight across in barter for illegal goods, and there's no reason to expect these practices to disappear.
* ''TabletopGame/GeniusTheTransgression:'' While not something that's come to pass, the idea has certainly come up many times in both theory and genuine desire by one or another genius. And like any idea that gets repeatedly or thoroughly refuted, it ends up spawning something born of displaced Mania; in this case, Paper Goblins, which are quite clever and will work with any Genius for the right price. And are also usually Latin American for some unknown reason. It's thought that whenever someone brings up the idea of a paperless society yet again, another goblin is born.

* In ''VideoGame/DeusEx'', paper money has been supplanted by a global electronic currency, credits, which is mostly seen on physical chits. Otherwise, paper hasn't gone anywhere - there are a lot of newspapers and books in the game world, though ''notepads'' have gone the way of dinosaurs, entirely replaced with datapads.

* In the space arc of ''Webcomic/ArthurKingOfTimeAndSpace'' (at least in [[http://www.arthurkingoftimeandspace.com/0873.htm this strip]]) Arthur and Guenevere don't even know what paper ''is''. Note, though, that [[RuleOfFunny the strip is inconsistent about this]]. [[http://www.arthurkingoftimeandspace.com/0375.htm A much earlier strip]] shows Arthur barely avoiding doing a hefty load of literal paperwork.

** Parodied/Lampshaded in [[http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff1600/fv01502.htm this]] strip, where the use of data pads instead of paper causes difficulty when wanting to put down newspapers so [[TeamPet Polly]] doesn't make a mess on the deck when nature calls.
** Later, Florence [[DiscussedTrope discusses the trope]], noting that [[ObstructiveBureaucrat bureaucracies went paperless because unlike with electronic forms, there's a limit to how many forms you can have when limited by paper supply.]]
* ''Webcomic/DarthsAndDroids'', being a ''Franchise/StarWars'' parody, has this. [[http://www.darthsanddroids.net/episodes/1763.html Apparently,]] this is because paper in the ''Star Wars'' universe is ''evil''.

* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'' features a future mostly devoid of paperwork and money, with "cred cards" as the standard form of currency. The spinoff series, ''WesternAnimation/TheZetaProject'', has the titular robot equipped with a card that can generate unlimited money, which often becomes a plot point.
** There is, however, quite a bit of cash seen in the episode "Payback".

** A VillainOfTheWeek used a newspaper's printing room as a hide-out. Terry said the place was empty because nobody reads newspapers anymore.
* One ''WesternAnimation/RobotChicken'' skit had [[Franchise/{{Superman}} Clark Kent]] out of a job as the Daily Planet became an app and had slashed the staff.

* In the late 1980's and early 90's there was a humorous poster in many offices. It showed a man in his office with computers and the caption was "The future will never be entirely paperless." If you look past the man you can see the bathroom with the toilet paper clearly visible.

** Money was never really paper to begin with - most banknotes are made of cloth. Several countries have gone a step further and introduced plastic banknotes. Some even have transparent bits to show you that it's not paper.

* Many jobs that historically involved extensive writing and use of paper have now gone totally digital—writing as a job, for example; many authors today write drafts almost completely on computers, and the only time significant paper is used is upon publication. (Sometimes not even, in the case of ebooks.)

** Interestingly ''averted'' in the original ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' pilot "The Cage", in which data readouts are printed out on paper.
*** The whole premise of the episode "A Piece of the Action" was that an alien society was based on the Chicago mobs of the 1920s, which they read about in a paper book that had been left behind by a previous visiting starship.
** In ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'', e-books rule the day, except for Picard's prized printed edition of Shakespeare, which takes a place of pride in his office. Other characters are seen enjoying printed books on occasion with the implication that collecting printed books is a sort of hobby like antiquing.
*** Curiously, however, they don't appear to have mastered the idea of having more than a single document per device. Frequently, when a person is investigating a topic, it has at least half a dozen of [=PADDs=] instead of using a single device to receive or compose all the files.
** In the ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' episode ''The Muse'' Jake Sisko is encouraged by an alien entity to write on paper (something which Jake said he'd never done). The alien also gives him what appears to be a nib pen which she said was used by another famous writer. It's odd that, in the 24th century, a teenager would even know ''how'' to write with a nib pen considering, even in the 21st century, ''very'' few people would know how to write with one.
** Averted in the series finale of ''Deep Space Nine'' "What You Leave Behind", where the treaty that ends the Dominion War is on a piece of paper signed with an actual pen. Through this we also learn the the Female Changeling is a Southpaw.
** ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'': Averted in an episode where Chaoktay falls in love with an alien whose [[PlanetOfHats hat]] is that they don't leave lasting memories (they have a biochemistry that makes memories fade and a computer virus that erases computer records). Chakotay writes out his experiences on paper so it won't be erased.
** The season two premiere of ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'' sees Daniels (and Archer) find themselves in a screwed-up version of Earth's 31st century. Daniels' greatest shock is reserved for the discovery that the (abandoned) library has physical books; in his version of the time period, it's all on computer. (Never mind that if it ''had'' been on computer, [[CoolButInefficient they wouldn't have gotten the information they needed, as the power was out]].)
** On ''Series/StarTrekDiscovery'' Tilly is amazed that Burnham owns an actual physical book, in this case a copy of ''Literature/AlicesAdventuresInWonderland'', a gift from her foster mother.

** It's actually somewhat bad in one sense. 'Print is all but dead' it says, when describing why language skill ratings for reading and writing are half that for talking--say, your English skill of 4 for talking in it drops to 2 for writing and reading it. But it still seems a lot of the data of the world is in the form of text ... which differs from print mainly due to all the electrons involved in the display. Plus, this is supposed to apply to specialized dialects, and one cited is legal-speak. So they're suggesting the field of LAW has cut down on writing?

* In ''VideoGame/DetroitBecomeHuman'', paper seems to have been replaced by touchpads that serve as magazines, bills and even mail. Keep in mind that the game takes place in [[TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture 2038]].

* {{Averted|Trope}} in ''VideoGame/IWasATeenageExocolonist''. Despite the Strato crew being bio-augmented with holographic palms, Eudicot and Seeq miss the feel of paper and still use it after landing on Vertumna. They plan to cut down the local trees to make paper out of them. Congruence also teaches her students pen-and-paper handwriting in Humanities class to teach them low-tech solutions in case their technology breaks down.
* ''Franchise/MassEffect'' states that both paper money and electronic money exist, but electronic money is generally preferred, due to aforementioned illegal activity that's done with paper money.
** In the sequel, most information is carried around on datapads similar to ''Franchise/StarTrek'', but sheets of paper, books and binders are visible in many places if you look closely.
** In ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'', there are paper books in Kasumi's room, which she is rather embarrassed about. Not because this is considered old fashioned, but because they're cheap [[RomanceNovel romance novels]].
** Although their own No-Paper Future happened 50,000 years in the past, the Protheans fully embraced this trope, storing both their memories and information on crystals, OrganicTechnology or even ''[[UnusualUserInterface water]]'' which they accessed with their empathic abilities. Javik even dislikes datapads for how "primitive" the technology is compared to what he's used to.

* ''VideoGame/{{Xenosaga}}'' does have paper, though it's rare and stuff like books are antiquities.

[[folder:Anime]]

* In ''Anime/YuGiOhTheDarkSideOfDimensions'', Seto Kaiba uses a completely virtual deck, while Yugi still uses physical cards.
* ''Anime/YuGiOhVRAINS'' also uses a virtual deck in LINK VRAINS, to the point where modern duel disks look like smart phones strapped to your arm in the real world, and as little more than watches in Link Vrains. Yusaku is one of the few people who still use physical cards.

* In ''Memento Nora'' by Angie Smibert, which takes place TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture (it is never stated when the book takes place, but 9/11 is considered the not so distant past), people use TFC points, earned when one goes to the Therapeutic Forgetting Center to have their memories erased. Only poor people use paper money.

** During the [[UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic COVID-19]] pandemic some businesses stopped accepting cash because of concerns that the virus could survive on paper currency and be spread that way. Even [[https://covid19.nj.gov/faqs/coronavirus-information/about-the-virus/can-covid-19-be-passed-via-currencies-(dollar-bills-coins-checks-etc.) some government bodies]] recommended people not use cash but to either shop online or use contact-less payment options. Research later showed that the risk of contracting COVID through cash was [[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8789161/ very low]], however some businesses still no longer accept cash.

** During the [[UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic COVID-19]] pandemic some businesses stopped accepting cash because of concerns that the virus could survive on paper currency and be spread that way and asked people to either shop online or use contact-less payment options. Research later showed that the risk of contracting COVID through cash was [[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8789161/ low]], however some businesses still no longer accept cash.

* {{Averted|Trope}} in ''VideoGame/IWasATeenageExocolonist''. Despite the Strato crew being bio-augmented with holographic palms, Eudicot and Seeq miss the feel of paper and still use it after landing on Vertumna. They plan to cut down the local trees to make paper out of them.

* In ''Videogame/DetroitBecomeHuman'', paper seems to have been replaced by touchpads that serve as magazines, bills and even mail. Keep in mind that the game takes place in [[TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture 2038]].

[[folder:Film]]

** The US makes much heavier use of electronic currency payment via debit cards in stores than places like Japan and Hong Kong. The big exception is the "Octopus" card, a prepaid debit card that can be used in everything from the mass transit system (for which it was created) to restaurants and soda machines.

* Referenced in a ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' novel: Ridcully is Archchancellor and supposedly an administrator, and "has always wanted a paperless office," but the Disc is just getting its Industrial Age underway and so paper is, of course, widely used. Ridcully gets rid of papers he doesn't feel like dealing with by locking them in a cabinet and throwing them out the window at night.