As you might or might not have heard, Apple is releasing the latest iteration of it’s OS X software, Lion (or, 10.7 depending on who’s counting) next month. One of the more interesting, but less reported, features of this could finally spell the death of the fax machine.

At this point, I wouldn’t blame you for wondering loudly who still uses a fax machine, but I promise you, there are still times when it can be useful. Often in business, a signed piece of paper is needed in order to prove agreement or intent. This is used in executing a contract to do business, or, as I have just recently done, to buy or sell a house. It might seem silly, but the act of selling your house, even today, takes no fewer than 30 ink-on-paper signatures.

As this Slate article states:

“Many countries have laws allowing for electronic signatures on documents, but it’s the rare institution that will accept your click as proof of agreement. So it seems we’re stuck. As long as people want to see your scribble on a piece of paper, you need to have a fax machine, or at least a way to approximate one.”

All well and good, but what does this have to do with OS X Lion? By way of an answer to the dilema of inking papers, the newest version of OS X is going to come with a feature that will let you hold a signed, blank, piece of paper up to your webcam, and it will create a digital signature to be put into a document for you.

This is a great advance if you measure technological advances in things you don’t have rather than you do have (For example, I don’t have a landline, a printer, a scanner, cable TV.…); however, it still leaves us with putting ink on paper (even if it’s fake ink at this time).

When will we get to a point where we are no longer putting ink on paper? When will we be able to prove enough identity and intent (or, at least as much as a signature proves) that an email can seal a contract?

My personal email has 2-factor identification, as do many corporate email systems. This makes it, for all intents and purposes, impossible to send a real email from my account. Why then, can I not use that email as my bond? Maybe Apple will fully take that on in its next OS iteration.