Nameless internet proponent responds to the idea that the internet will not be significantly faster or cheaper anytime soon:

The more people who go to the net NOW the faster the transition will be so theres your argument shot to shite, shall we say two generations before paper becomes quaint? I hope I'll still be around then I know that the paper version of C.I. won't be.

Any given technology can only completely supersede another given technology if it does everything that the other technology does and more. If it does some of the things and not others then the other technology will survive. The most common example sited of a technology superseding another is the car and the horse and cart. This is a good example of technology being a superset of another technology (i.e. it does everything that a horse and cart does in practical terms and costs less time and effort to maintain). However horses and carts still exist because, for some people, they have more charm.

Nameless internet proponent again refering to the cost of being online to read all that comics news on the interent in the uk:

Try downloading onto disk, or even sending it all to your home address via Email if you don't have the time to read it at work.

This is an example of why the Internet is less practical right now. The problem is not the pipe (the Internet) but the tap(computers). I don't find it hard to imagine a technology that would be the superset of the printed newspaper or magazine. It would be light, foldable and would have articles laid out in a regular order(part of the appeal of newspapers is that the sport is at the back and the important stories are at the front and the TV is in the middle some where. While technology makes a whole range of layout options possible the practical value of familiarity should not be forgotten. It would allow you to subscribe to a news and or magazine service(maybe multiples) and all the information would be transferred immediately(transparently with no effort on the part of the subscriber). I don't need to point out that the technology to do this does not exist as yet, but it will.

Practical and nameless user:

I look forward to you wiping your arse on a laptop two generations or so down the road...then I'll believe that the age of the written word is dead.

Don't rule this out. In the last issue of Wired (8.04 I think) there is an article, admittedly possibly an April fool, that discusses the possibility of a paper computer being used. It seems to be practical and useful and very cheap. Don't make the mistake of assuming that display technologies will always be huge clunky CRTs or expensive but vulnerable LCDs. There are way too many different display technologies coming to write off the possibility of a cheap and disposable computer.