Enshittification of Postal Services Isn't Technological Advancement
Paper is very, very valuable in many contexts (we've printed many things this month); "digital" is overrated
Post isn't going away. Post is being enshittified, i.e. we're expected to pay far more for a lot less. The subject was discussed this morning in IRC and again when walked past a Royal Mail depo around 10AM. Many places in the world (not just Denmark) quit delivering post, so there's lots of "fake news" this week (e.g. lots of articles about this in our Daily Links earlier today).
If not fake, then certainly misleading. Post isn't going away; there are still private and expensive couriers; they're not there to serve the public but to exploit it. It's known as price gouging and it's done at many levels. Besides, Denmark isn't the first (just the first rich country).
"The Grauniad has a wrong title," a person pointed out (not just Grauniad). "It is not the Danish Postal Service ending letters. The DPS was eliminated years ago. Letters have been delivered by PostNord A/S instead for the last few years. Written communication is no longer a service, but a profit center and in conflict with Metcalfe's law, they are shaving the edges off of the network. In other words, in effect the decision to end letter service was made when DPS ended and PostNord started, only the timing was left open. Now the wheels set in motion back then have ground this far."
I still use the post a great deal, e.g. as a Litigant in Person at the UK High Court and soon the Court of Appeal (we have witnesses coming forth this week). Without the post, the processes would be further complicated.
Societies that say the aim is to "go digital" and eliminate paper trail aren't advanced; they're moving backwards. █