Re-inventing the wheel, er, paper

What is the obsession with creating digital paper that’s “paper like”? Don’t we already have a pretty good handle on the paper manufacturing process? That’s not stopping scientists at Epsom who have developed a new chip that, you guessed it, makes digital paper a step closer to the real thing. I am for creating smaller, dynamic displays, but do we really need digitized paper? Recycling current paper is pretty easy, but I am going to assume the eWaste people aren’t going to like us throwing the digital version into landfills and the like. Personally, I think pen systems like the one being developed by Livescribe are a better way to go for those that really want to capture handwritten thoughts to a computer. To borrow from the late Charlton Heston, you can pry my pulp-based paper out of my cold, dead hands.