What is next?

I have tried to describe a typewriter to my kids: real-rime printing after each keystroke. They can’t imagine. More recently made obsolete are things like floppy disks and phone cords. The other day I noticed a new phone book on my porch. We never once used the last eight phone books and I’m sure it will soon be a relic next to the typewriter. Even road maps are becoming obsolete. The nice thing about planning your route on-line is not only do you get point-to-point directions, you don’t have to refold the map.

So what is next? We can’t really know but every day when I get my mail I wonder how much longer the U.S. postal service will last. USPS delivery arose from a need to transmit information via paper, and it has been a good run, but that need seems to be rapidly diminishing.

Mail used to be seven days a week, and in the early days, in some high-volume urban areas, mail was delivered as many as seven times a day. That sounds insane but how often do I check my E-mail? There is talk now of dropping Saturday delivery during the summer to cut costs. I hope they do. One less day to fetch unwanted ads from the mailbox and discard them.