Will Luxury Fountain Pen Brands And Inks Still Exist In About 100 Years?

[rb120134]

Hi,

Do you guys think that luxury fountain pen brands and inks still exist in about 100 years? or will everything be digital and writing be obsolete? Or will we only use dirt cheap ballpoint pens?

[praxim]

I think you have asked me to define what will exist in a century in terms of today's technologies. Ask the question in 1919. The right answer then was "yes, but other currently unknown technologies will be used more commonly". Seems as good an answer today.

[vicpen123]

For commercial activity or personal use?

 

My 2 answers are : obsolete and yes.

[A Smug Dill]

We'll most likely have sufficiently evolved by then that the idea of brands will be obsolete. I conjecture that everything about a unit of a retail product that someone may be interested in acquiring, or that someone else is carrying or using, will be available to be solicited from afar, so that consumers no longer need to rely on brands as an input in either estimating product quality and value or conveying prestige embodied in one's material possessions.

 

Inks will still exist.

 

[ethernautrix]

Our thoughts will be automatically uploaded to the cloud. Then scanned.

 

Appropriate action will be taken.

[Misfit]

It depends on how we treat the Earth, and also infrastructure. If the grid goes out, even for a week, so does technology.

 

I went into Walmart a couple years ago when the power was out, or they had cash register issues. They could only take cash that visit.

[Honeybadgers]

We'll most likely have sufficiently evolved by then that the idea of brands will be obsolete. I conjecture that everything about a unit of a retail product that someone may be interested in acquiring, or that someone else is carrying or using, will be available to be solicited from afar, so that consumers no longer need to rely on brands as an input in either estimating product quality and value or conveying prestige embodied in one's material possessions.

 

Inks will still exist.

 

 

 

Man your idea of the star trek utopia comes a lot sooner than I think it will.

 

 

My vote is yes. Who knows what the next hundred years will bring, but we are kind of bumping into the limits of how technology can truly engage with people as a replacement for the faculties that our brains are tied to. We will never be able to really get past the fact that we're still animals, and animals don't learn from technology. Kids learn from interacting with real people, not watching screens and playing games, no matter how educational they may be. Studies are showing more and more the critical importance of physical manipulation - those "adventure playgrounds" have been studied to death and show that they are phenomenally better than the sanitized playgrounds we give kids today.

 

My wager is that we will start to settle into technology filling its really good niche roles, but no matter how good it is, an apple watch will never replace an automatic rolex for some people.

[jchch1950]

I don't know. New products that we use now where unthinkable 100 years ago. But humans keep improving every thing that can make life easier. Writing will continue to be a basic activity and maybe there will always be people that will like to do things like in the "old days".

[Parker51]

Sorry to annoy, but yes, brands will continue to exist and continue to produce significant income flow to those who control them.

Will they be the same brands, no.

Will the pens have nibs and use liquid ink, yes, but will the holders be identical to what we currently are familiar with, yes in the most part, but there will be significant variants, with new materials and methods of production. Cartridges will continue to exist, but may not dominate as the benefits associated with self filling pens especially in regard to proprietary cartridges persist, though this may be mitigated by he use of standard cartridges.

Inks also will change, both who makes them, which are highly valued and why.

Will Fountain Pens be an important cultural tool, no, but they aren't for the most part now. They will be a minor hobby, but an international one, affordable by many more people than today, so likely a slightly larger business in net, though still so small in any specific market that there may be only a handful of physical shops left.

Edited July 22, 2019 by Parker51

[A Smug Dill]

Will they be the same brands, no.

Which ones count as "luxury fountain pen brands", anyway? Montblanc, Caran d'Ache, S.T. Dupont all produce and are known for more than fountain pens, even though they are probably seen as luxury brands today (and in the past decades). Sailor, Platinum and Pilot all produce luxury fountain pens but also $20 fountain pen models (e.g. Sailor Profit Junior, Platinum Plaisir, Pilot MR) that are competent writing instruments, so do they count as luxury fountain pen brands?

 

I'd say all of the above brands will still exist in 100 years' time, even if their business model and primary products may have changed in the meantime.

 

I don't know whether the O.P. meant to word his/her question such that the "luxury brands" covered fountain pen ink brands. I'd say J.Herbin will still be around. If Montblanc is still around then and still selling fountain pens, then it will most likely also be selling inks (and not cheaply), as will Caran d'Ache.

[Karmachanic]

I have no idea what the future will bring, other than change.

[rb120134]

Will Graf von Faber Castell be around in 100 Years?

[MHBru]

this is an interesting thought experiment. I would like to be around to see what things will be like in 100 years but at age 65 I suspect that will not happen. Having read some of the comments I suspect it is safe to assume that some of the brands we know today will still be around... many of them have been around for 100+ years already! Pocket watches are still around.... analog clocks are still around ... books are still being printed ... I strongly suspect that fountain pens will be around in 100 years as well. Perhaps not with the current lineup but they will be here. It will be interesting to see what the pricing distribution is at that time too. If I had to shoot from the hip on this one I'd say that it feels like today the high point of the pricing curve is toward the less expensive end and it is distinctly possible that in 100 years that apex moves to the right/more expensive side with many of today's cheap pen makers moving on to something else. At the same time.... graphic pencils were first mass produced over 300 years ago and they are still around. I suppose for any of us it's merely a guess but an interesting way to think about things.

[Freddy]

Puttin' on me futurist hat.....Why not..................

 

'Tis a Brave New World {Huxley}......in 1984 {Orwell}.....fightin' fires.....Fahrenheit 451 no need for pens {Bradbury}

Fred

listening to Doc Watson.....I went down to that St. James Infirmary.....next... Mama Don't Allow No Music........

[como]

It doesn't matter, as long as insurance policy will still cover my celluloid pens against aliens invasion.

[bluebellrose]

It depends on how we treat the Earth, and also infrastructure. If the grid goes out, even for a week, so does technology.

 

I went into Walmart a couple years ago when the power was out, or they had cash register issues. They could only take cash that visit.

the last time we had a power outage, Superstore couldn't scan or weigh anything. We had to punch everything in by hand.We could take credit but it was pin and chip. I'm not sure about the tray or if it could be opened

[Namo]

We'll most likely have sufficiently evolved by then that the idea of brands will be obsolete. I conjecture that everything about a unit of a retail product that someone may be interested in acquiring, or that someone else is carrying or using, will be available to be solicited from afar, so that consumers no longer need to rely on brands as an input in either estimating product quality and value or conveying prestige embodied in one's material possessions.

 

Inks will still exist.

 

Sorry, I'll be a little off subject. In the French forword of Brunner's SciFi novel Zanzibar, it is explains how, at the moment of the publishing of the book was also publisher a report for the US government about what life and society would be the year 2000, about half a century forward. The report was talking about flying cars and on,where the oven was talking computers; the report was planning on an ongoing economy, peace and progress, the novel talking about violence, environmental problems and so on (sorry of I am not very accurate, it's a very long time I've read anything SciFi indeed, bit you get the idea). My guess is brands will still exist, they will be less of them maybe (you know, Monsanto-Bayer and tomorrow Monsanto-Bayer-Nestlé-Google...) but they will rule the world... Fountain pens will be the last way to express free thoughts out of the control of these companies and people will have to learn how to make paper since it will be illegal to write anything out of the web...

 

As you see, I am a real optimistic person...

[txomsy]

I think the answer is obvious.

 

When I went to Venice they sold dip pens made in Burano's crystal at every other shop. If a dip pen is still sold as a luxury item nowadays... what should the answer be?

 

Can you get other "ancient/demodé" luxury items? What is the use of a ring? A wristwatch? A pocket watch? A horse saddle? Come on!

 

I think the answer is obvious.

[inkandseeds]

For years I taught a college course on technology and human values. In the course, we discussed the “Fermi Paradox”. While discussing intelligent life in the universe with friends and colleagues, Fermi asked if there is intelligent life beyond Earth, where are they? Why haven’t we heard from them or seen evidence of them? He asked these questions right after World War II and at the beginning of the atomic age. One of the more common answers to his questions at that time was it was obvious that if life was intelligent it eventually developed nuclear weapons and destroyed itself in nuclear war. (Another answer involved distance between worlds, time and probability.)

 

Today, a popular alternative theory has been proposed. Intelligent life does developed nuclear weapons but restrains itself. Intelligent life however becomes distracted by entertainment and stops reaching. The development of virtual reality would provide endless, highly addictive entertainment which would distract us from everything else including reproduction.

 

I favor the alternative theory so in a hundred years both brands and fountain pens may very well exist, but they will be virtual, not material. Humans will be locked into their VR worlds, will look like Jobba the Hutt in the material world and some hot individual in the virtual world. Everything can and will exist in the virtual world but we will be too bored to care.

 

When my students and I did discuss this, I normally ended my comments with “Thank god i’m old and will not be here to live it.”

[Wahl]

I have pens from the 1920´s so why not ?