Perpetuation has changed forms

Of course language is for communication.  In the first days of language, it was for face-to-face communication.  Then, people saw that simply making marks for money transacted was a good way of keeping people from changing what they agreed to.  Later, marks for representing geographical landmark words and words for boundaries and measurements were devised.  Before long, a system emerged that represented what people wanted to perpetuate.  Kings, for example, wanted to tout their spoils in war, and those who knew how to write wanted to keep a list of kings and sometimes their accomplishments for posterity.

Not too far down the line from property records and annals of kings came the keepers of stories.  People wanted to record their myths (used in a literary sense), so they wrote them down.  But, more and more tasks were put into writing as cultures flourished for long periods of time.  However, at the root of every written system was the face-to-face communication.

Now, however, face-to-face communication is beginning to disappear.  Virtual communication has begun replacing face-to-face.  With virtual communication, the need for writing stories or observable information for posterity or for back-up of a real conversation is dying.  People can record their virtual communication in several different forms.  Thus, the need for making marks on a page is dying.  The other forms are more efficient, faster, and are more exact.

Making the marks and making sense of those marks (writing and reading) have lasted a very long time - about 5000 years, but since their need has become unnecessary, their perpetuation has also become unnecessary.  It's really that simple.  Adios, farewell, goodbye to an old friend who has served us well.  It was a good run.  But, it's time to move on.