Abstract
The apparent proliferation of Information Technology only enables us to capture less than 5% of our physical data electronically for retrieval at a later date. Ironically, the use of IT has increased our consumption of paper and caused the now infamous information overload. This article examines why the much heralded “paperless office” failed to materialise in the 80s despite the availability of the software to capture text, structured information and image, and asks if we should have any faith in the industry's cries that the 1990s will be the decade that revolutionises our working practices and enables us as a species to make a significant step forward in the management of the one facility that demarques us from the rest of the animal kingdom, the ability to pass knowledge from one generation to the next.