History Main / NoPaperFuture

This whole trope presumes the complete elimination of the BlackMarket or illegal transactions, as, obviously, drug dealers are not going to be interested in transactions that leave a paper data trail. Ditto for people arranging transactions to evade or avoid taxes or purchase something they'd [[PornStash rather not admit to]]; cash has no trail, electronic money does. But then the government decides how money is done, so who cares about the criminals? (Let's not dwell on the obvious answer to that question which is shown every time a news''paper'' presents news about political scandals involving large bribes...) Though on the other hand, they can use a cryptocurency like Bitcoin.

** Subverted in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E8SilenceInTheLibrary "Silence in the Library"]]/[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E9ForestOfTheDead "Forest of the Dead"]]: The Library is 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.

** 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.

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

* 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.
* Subverted in the ''Series/DoctorWho'' episode "Silence in the Library". The Library is largest one in the entire universe, comprising the surface of an ''entire planet'', with it's 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.

* 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/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.
* 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.

[[folder: Newspaper Comics ]]

* ''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 ''StarWars'' universe; 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.

** The trope is played absolutely straight in the ''StarWars'' [[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.

** Some books appear in ''Film/TheLastJedi'', but they're millennia old artifacts of the old jedi order.

** YuGiOhVrains follows the same route, 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.

* {{Wasteland2}} completely inverts this trope. People don't use paper money, they use Scrap. In fact, the picture for scrap is... a pile of scrap. You get it off all human enemies. It's a CrapsackWorld so bad that people are flat-out trading with raw materials, even though it's treated exactly like currency.

Another way to tell it's the future is to make money 'weird', if not get rid of it. This is a JustifiedTrope in the United States and a few other First World countries, since now many of us really ''do'' pay with cards for any sizable amount of money when possible ([[CreditCardPlot and preferable]]). For now it's still more practical to bring money for smaller transactions, to save the 20 or 30 seconds to sign a receipt or key PIN; yet even now, swipe-and-go smart cards that can be much ''faster'' than handling messy physical change are spreading.

The future is full of data drives, backups, often made of OrganicTechnology or [[DataCrystal crystal]], and {{holographic terminal}}s. No paper though, even if we still have trees around. The danger of having [[NoPlansNoPrototypeNoBackup no hard copies]] of information seems lost on folks. This vision of an entirely digital future hearkens back to the 70s and 80s, when the increasing popularity of the home computer and email led many to believe that soon paper would be made obsolete by the ability to transfer and access hundred-page documents instantly on portable computing devices. Ironically, as the years went on the growing use of fax machines and printers meant paper was in higher demand than ever before. However by the 2000s the growing trends was towards everything being digital, and the rise of e-books threatens to make a No Paper Future a reality (despite the [[NoPlansNoPrototypeNoBackup no hard copies]] risks).

Another way to tell it's the future is to make money 'weird', if not get rid of it. This is a JustifiedTrope in the United States and a few other First World countries, since now many some of us really ''do'' pay with cards for any sizable amount of money when possible ([[CreditCardPlot and preferable]]). For now it's still more practical to bring money for smaller transactions, to save the 20 or 30 seconds to sign a receipt or key PIN; yet even now, swipe-and-go smart cards that can be much ''faster'' than handling messy physical change are spreading.

** On ''StarTrekDiscovery'' Tilly is amazed that Burnham owns an actual physical book.

* A tragic example, but in countries with a severe crisis in resources, paper money is hard to find. By 2018, the paper crisis was so severe in UsefulNotes/{{Venezuela}} that the government was looking for a cryptocurrency called Petro to work for the country. However, the Petro was criticized by other nations as a mean of corruption due to how badly the same government had handled the country resources, and not as a solution. While paper-cash is around, is so hard to find that most of the population pay through the bank.

* Discussed a little, but averted, in ''StarTrekVanguard'', when Pennington reads a newspaper:

* In an episode of ''{{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.

* In the ''Literature/QuadrailSeries'' by 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.

Another way to tell it's the future is to make money 'weird', if not get rid of it. This is a JustifiedTrope at this point, since now many some of us really ''do'' pay with cards for any sizable amount of money when possible ([[CreditCardPlot and preferable]]). For now it's still more practical to bring money for smaller transactions, to save the 20 or 30 seconds to sign a receipt or key PIN; yet even now, swipe-and-go smart cards that can be much ''faster'' than handling messy physical change are spreading.

This whole trope presumes the complete elimination of the BlackMarket or illegal transactions, as, obviously, drug dealers are not going to be interested in transactions that leave a paper data trail. Ditto for people arranging transactions to evade or avoid taxes or purchase something they'd [[PornStash rather not admit to]]; cash has no trail, electronic money does. But then the government decides how money is done, so who cares about the criminals? (Let's not dwell on the obvious answer to that question which is shown every time a news''paper'' presents news about political scandals involving large bribes...) Also, they can use a cryptocurency like Bitcoin.

** In the ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' episode ''The Muse'' Jake Sisko is encouraged by an alien entity to write on paper (something which he 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.

* {{Wasteland2}} uses Scrap as currency. In fact, the picture for scrap is... a pile of scrap. You get it off all human enemies. There is no form of cash; people are flat-out trading with raw materials.

* 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 ''VideoGame/SecretOfEvermore'', the Omnitopia biome uses "credits" as its currency instead of paper money, though the whole game technically doesn't use paper money since Talons, Jewels and Gold are not paper either.

* 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.

* UsefulNotes/{{Sweden}} [[http://numismaster.com/ta/numis/Article.jsp?ad=article&ArticleId=13953 actually considers the bold move of ditching paper money]].
* During the 2008 housing recession, many news papers went out of business, with most cities only having one or two active newspapers lines, and many paper companies still have trouble as many people didn't resubscribe when the economy improved. The WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond example above may prove to be correct.