“For decades, civilization has been trying to develop beyond paper, promoting a paper-free world that will run seamlessly, immaterially on pixels and screens alone. How did paper get here? Where does it go next? For that matter, why is paper – which does its job perfectly well – compelled to keep innovating?” David J Under in The Guardian: American reams: why a paperless world still hasn’t happened. When the internet first got going, I never would’ve predicted paper’s incredible staying power. Of course, I also never would have predicted that we want our mattresses delivered in a cardboard box.