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Aucbvax.2355 fa.works utzoo!duke!decvax!ucbvax!works Sun Jul 19 08:58:19 1981 advantages of paper >From JWALKER@BBNA Sun Jul 19 08:47:57 1981 Certainly information in paper form has many disadvantages over electronic form. Still Vaughn Pratt's observation about being able to leave paper lying around without worrying about losing it is interesting. This is probably true only of paper that is easy to regenerate. (If anyone remembers pre-electronic days, can you imagine having left your thesis draft on a beach??)

Another interesting situation in which paper has an unexpected advantage -- paper is hard to modify. This turns out to be good rather than bad at times. When I read something on my screen, the keyboard is far too handy and the temptation to start fiddling with the text immediately is sometimes counter- productive. I am NOT by any means suggesting that we build in delays or barriers to editing files! I am pointing out one "application" (musing) where paper sometimes wins out over electrons for psychological rather than technological reasons.

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