Trope-a-Day: No Paper Future
No Paper Future: Played mostly straight. And there aren’t many data rods around either, except in specialist applications; ubiquitous wireless networking, and the slate (i.e., future-iPad-analog) replace them more or less completely for routine applications. (And no, unlike Star Trek, no-one has a stack of slates on their desk.) Of the paper documents that do exist, most of them are smart-paper that can electronically edit itself or become other documents or its own appendices. Actual paper tends to be a mark of the very traditional on special occasions.
(Actual paper books are a little more common than random paper documents, but even they are collectors’ items. That said, there are entire bound books made up internally of smart-paper, so you can keep a bookshelf in your house which can change to contain whatever books you need from your (bigger) e-book library essentially on-demand. [Incidentally, as an author’s note, you have no idea how much I want this technology. Really. You don’t.])
Money-wise, it’s similar. While there is still metal coinage and paper money – well, plastic-silk money – around, virtually all transactions are done digitally across the data network. The physical currency exists nearly exclusively for certain types of anonymous transaction, traditionalists, and eccentrics.