Here are some of the best answers from my Linkedin Question: (I received a total of 28 answers)

"It would be a myth if most people actually believed it was possible, but their actions dictate that they don’t. Ironically, the technology is available now to make the paperless office a reality, but it will require a cultural change and a change in work habits to be fully realized. With software available for electronic archiving, email, digital signature, workflow, electronic forms, versioning, collaboration, retention, annotations, bate stamping, RFID, and a host of authenitication and security features, it is conceivable that an office could be paperless today. One of the biggest challenges for those pursuing a paperless office is that they do business with so many people who are NOT pursuing a paperless office. But they continue to do their part — I know of companies that have removed staplers, printers and copiers and I even know of one company who will terminate any employee caught printing email. Those who are serious about being paperless are enforcing their policies and slowly changing the corporate culture. These companies who have invested in the right technology and enforce policy are seeing a financial return in both hard and soft dollars."  Tom Talamantez

"I think what we will see is that paper will become a very transitory medium, rather than a medium of storage for information. People like to deal with paper. It is portable (for the most part), you can read it with no technology, and you can easily mark it up. You don’t have to charge a battery, upgrade software, or wait for paper to boot up. There is an ease of use and oftentimes, a very nice user interface, in the rawest sense of that term.From a legal standpoint, the electronic version of a paper document will become the evidence that is required. electronic records are easier to search and you can cast a far wider net more efficiently with electronic records. So from a legal standpoint, I suspect that electronic records will be preferred.

Therefore, over time, I expect that the long term retention of paper records as records of an organization will decline. But people will continue to print documents for review and portability."  Patrick Cunningham

" Switch the focus from paperless to paperlight.

As a paperless office consultant, my philosophy is to enable businesses to take steps towards this ideal by gradually phasing as much paper as possible out of their day-to-day business processes. I call it going paperlight rather than paperless – by which I mean that a business can dramatically reduce its paper consumption (and all the wasted time and resources that accompany it) just by re-educating people and streamlining their paper handling processes.

Ultimately, every business is keen to save time and money – many are now also more aware of their environmental impact or carbon footprints – and going paper-light is the solution to all of these common objectives. Despite common misconceptions, it IS easily achievable and not at great expense.

I believe that many of the current paper-based processes and documents in every average office will eventually become obsolete as people increasingly become aware that you can achieve twice as much in half the time by handling things electronically. Unfortunatley, many people are discouraged by the concept of going paperless since they think it is an all or nothing committment which it does not need to be. In my opinion, with a little awareness and training, every business has much to gain and nothing to lose by embracing a paper-light approach to everyday business practices." Carrie Bradley

Thanks to all the others who answered.