Star Wars universe and paper

[FaxModem1]

I was doing a bit of wiki walking, and discovered something interesting about the Star Wars universe:

Legends on Paper

Paper was a material used in the production of written documents. Although it bore a resemblance to durasheet, paper was not designed with the utility of reusability in mind. As technological progress was made, paper was superseded by data storage devices such as datapads and was rarely used. During the First Corellian Insurrection, Anakin Solo used a pen and paper to record the coordinates of each star that was targeted for destruction by the Sacorrian Triad, as well as the time of each, by memory.

Behind the scenes
The rulebook for the first edition of Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game stressed that "there is no paper in the Star Wars universe" and that the inhabitants of the galaxy exclusively used electronic means of data storage. In addition to the use of paper in publications, such as Assault at Selonia, this attitude towards the use of paper in the Star Wars universe seemed to relax by the time that the rulebook for the game's second edition was published. It stated that paper was "rarely, if ever used" by the galaxy's inhabitants.

So, before it was retconned, the Star Wars galaxy was a universe where civilization never invented paper. How would this affect a society? How would this affect development? It this being retconned(before the old EU was destroyed and the new EU was made) a good thing, because it's too idiotic, or a bad thing, sapping a bit of flavor out of the SW universe?

Discuss.

[atg]

IIRC quite a few Legends novels mention 'flimsy' which from context is clearly a paper-analog. Not sure how the novels compared to the Roleplaying Game rulebook in the old Canon scale.

[Lord Revan]

the way non-RPG sources described it (well indirectly) is that it's not so much that paper was never invented but rather the modern replacements are more convient and at least as relible as paper so there's no need to use paper as you don't really gain anything useful by using paper.

as for the old canon scale, while there was no official word the unofficial practice was that game lore was lowest on the canon totem pole.

[Elheru Aran]

The old "flimsi" or "flimsy"-- I want to say that could've come out of the X-wing books, but it's probably older than that-- always struck me as being some kind of printer-paper, perhaps the kind they use in receipt machines. Or it could be a disposable plastic; who knows.

I also want to say that the really old Lando Calrissian Adventures and the Han Solo Trilogy by Brian Daley may have mentioned books at some point. It would surprise me considerably if there are no actual physical books laying around. Of course the great majority can be antiques, that's fine. And it makes sense for them to be something of a prestige item when even today you can buy an e-book for fifty cents while the dead-tree edition costs ten times as much...

[Lord Revan]

IIRC paper is used today as it's still more relible and convient then going fully electronic.

[Elheru Aran]

IIRC paper is used today as it's still more relible and convient then going fully electronic.

Of course, but it does cost more. When digital devices become far more common (as in, you more or less literally can not live in a First World nation without one), then I would expect to see a proportionate reduction in paper used daily-- shopping receipts will be sent to your phone, the majority of books sold will be electronic, newspapers will be delivered in electronic format, etc. Certainly the dead-tree format will still be available to those willing to buy them, but it's like we're already seeing some movies going to streaming *before* DVD releases.

[Lord Revan]

IIRC paper is used today as it's still more relible and convient then going fully electronic.

Of course, but it does cost more. When digital devices become far more common (as in, you more or less literally can not live in a First World nation without one), then I would expect to see a proportionate reduction in paper used daily-- shopping receipts will be sent to your phone, the majority of books sold will be electronic, newspapers will be delivered in electronic format, etc. Certainly the dead-tree format will still be available to those willing to buy them, but it's like we're already seeing some movies going to streaming *before* DVD releases.

well that kind of my point as SW verse is probably not using paper as their electronic methods of data storage and reading are as relible and convient as writing it on peice of paper. I mean SW had electronics so robust and relible that the Endar Spire still had lights and working doors after having crash into the surface (or at least the part that equilevant of the surface in most planets) and having been laying there as a wreck for centuries (IIRC).

[Mange]

I seem to remember from some old TPM commentary that Ben Quadinaros was to have been seen leafing through a paper manual for his pod racer in a deleted scene, but that it was changed as GL said that paper isn't used in the galaxy.