"The trouble with our times is the future is not what it used to be."
Paul Valery (1871-1945), French essayist, poet and critic
In the 1960s we had a vision of what our future would hold for us. There would definitely be flying cars. Food would come in the form of pills or some kind of gloop eaten out of toothpaste-like tubes. There would be videophones rather than telephones, and space flight would be commonplace.
As I've grown older all of these have come to pass. I read that there are now cars that can fly, babies and young children regularly suck some sort of goo from plastic sacs with spouts, phones and computers offer video and speech communication, rockets blast off weekly and bookings are being taken for space tourism. It would seem that the future has arrived. However, until recently there was one prediction that hadn't come to pass. That 60s future had people wearing what we then called "jump suits" - an all in one item of clothing, rather like tight overalls that covered the body from the neck to the ankles. But, with the arrival of the "onesie", the final piece of the jigsaw is in place and the future is definitely upon us - take that Paul Valery! Of course, for the full and complete version of that future to be a reality does require that this item of youth fashion be extended to people of all ages. So, I've ordered my onesie and I feel sure that you have too.
The future that was predicted fifty years ago missed quite a few everyday developments that have become commonplace. The big one is the internet and the world wide web. But, items such as ceramic bladed knives, car satnav and talking bus stops were also unforeseen by the futurologists, novelists, sages and seers when they looked into their crystal balls. So too were the wide range of new man-made materials including the non-slip type used in cupboard and drawer matting by caravan owners, motorhomers and others. Today's photograph shows a view down the interior of a roll of this material that we've been using to stop our granddaughter's tray slipping off the table. As you will have worked out if you read the previous post, the photograph was taken after I'd put it on an Android tablet that I was using as a light table. Unfortunately the colour of my piece of material is battleship grey, so to give the shot a bit more impact I added a digital 2-colour filter.
photograph and text © Tony Boughen
Camera: LX3
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 5.1mm (24mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f2
Shutter Speed: 1/30
ISO: 200
Exposure Compensation: 0.33
Image Stabilisation: On
