Peter Cochrane's Hard Drive 1996
Homepage > Publication & Opinion > Hard Drive

---

Living among the new age nomads
TWENTY years ago we were all getting very excited at the prospect of the paperless office. What happened? We now use more paper than ever before and for many it still seems something of a dream. Relatively speaking, only a few organisations worldwide can claim to have totally changed the way they work and become so embedded in IT that paper is hardly ever used.

The reality is that far more work and information is now processed and stored on computers than on paper. The principal mistake made over the past decades was to take the paradigm of the paper office and put it on to the screen - and then back it all up with paper. The screen and computers invoke a different way of working, a different mode of operation, and can now be seen as an entirely different environment.

Companies and individuals are now moving hard on to the screen, network working, and most important re-engineering organisations. The result is a rapid streamlining in operations and management, new ways of operating that are impossible with paper.

So what of telecommunications - is there a parallel situation evolving? The telephone, the fax machine, mobile phone, television, radio and more latterly, video-conferencing might encourage us to suppose that physical travel will soon be a thing of the past. The reality is that telecommunications are doing for the travel industry what the computer did for the paperless office. We still insist on travelling and meeting people because the truth is that telecommunications are only a partial solution and in fact, promotes a desire and need to travel.

Technology will be able to deliver such realism that travel will become unecessary

A more recent merging of technology is promoting this world of travel through the combining of computing and communication with laptop computers, modems, fixed phone lines and GSM telephones. We can now be online from the car, the train, the hotel bedroom and we see new age nomads everywhere. They travel with a laptop case full of connectors, batteries, modems, mobile phone.

For these people the office is where they are, they communicate irrespective of location and distance. Their working style is a far cry from the office worker of just five years ago.

Along with such flexibility and the advantage of always being on the move, there is a downside. The divisions between working, playing, home and office are removed. The world becomes a less divided and a far more fuzzy place. Work never stops, home life is no longer sacrosanct.

But on the upside sudden bursts of inspiration and desire to do something can be reconciled immediately. You can work when you are most able, most enthusiastic, best motivated. If managed well, it also allows for a greater degree of human interaction - during the past decade my work output has gone up tenfold.

The artificial nature of our communications systems through telephone and teleconferencing will actually dictate that we continue to travel more than we should or need for at least another decade and possibly two. Beyond that, however, the technology will be able to deliver such realism that travel will become unecessary. It is vital that this should be the case, otherwise we will not only destroy countries, but the the human environment.

Burning hydrocarbons at an accelerating rate is untenable, but burning bits is no problem.

Peter Cochrane holds the Collier Chair for the Public Understanding of Science & Technology at the University of Bristol. His home page is:
http://cochrane.org.uk