"It's called a lightbulb, dear. They all used to look like that in my day. That's one of the old incandescent type, all round and bobbly. It was made of glass, and there was an electric filament in the middle which glowed and burnt heat or something. It was bulbs like this which provided us with light back in the old days. This one's 100 watts, which was one of the really big ones. It's much bigger than any of the low energy bulbs that followed, but then you probably don't remember those either. They were sort of twisty glass tube things which gave out a dim flickery light, and they took an age to warm up. Plus they had mercury in, far too dangerous to have hanging around, which is why world governments banned those outright too. We all have to make do with low-glow fluorescent panels everywhere these days, but they're just not the same."
"And what's that in the photo, Granny?"
"It's called a light switch, dear. Every room used to have one in my day. When we wanted illumination we flicked the switch and the light came on. We had complete control over it - on, off, on, off, on, off. If we wanted the light on before it got dark, that was fine. If we wanted the light on after midnight, that was fine too. If we left the light on in a room we weren't in, nobody sent the police round. Sometimes we just flicked the switch for a bit of mood lighting, just because it looked nice. Total independence it was, left completely to our own discretion. Of course it couldn't last, all that unnecessary unplanned wastage, which is why world governments stepped in and banned light switches outright too. We all have to make do with sensor-operated automatic motion detectors everywhere these days, but they're just not the same."
"And what's that in the photo, Granny?"
"It's called a television, dear. Every house used to have one in my day. In fact, as I remember, most houses had at least three. Televisions were big electronic screens that showed what was going on in the world using moving pictures. They used to be big hulking things with a vacuum tube inside, and those guzzled a lot of electricity. And then they got much thinner, and also much bigger, and we loved watching them even more, but of course they guzzled even more electricity. Sometimes people used their TV sets to play games on, sometimes people used them for playing background music, and sometimes people left them on for two hours to watch stories that weren't even true. Of course it couldn't last, what with all the extra electricity these plasma screens consumed, which is why world governments stepped in when the oil ran out and confiscated them all. We all have to make do with miniature communal viewpads these days, but it's just not the same."
"And what's that in the photo, Granny?"
"It's called a planet, dear. We all used to live on one in my day. It was a huge round ball in space with plenty of room for seven billion humans. We could go outside unprotected and walk around in the open air without the need for spacesuits. We had the freedom to live anywhere we liked, and to travel anywhere we wanted. The sky was blue, not black, and you could feel the radiation from the nearest star on your skin as it warmed the atmosphere. It was really beautiful, at least until we concreted most of it over. Of course it couldn't last, not after the flooding got worse and the skies got poisonous, which is why world governments stepped in and fired a few of us into space. We all have to make do with living in sub light-speed dormitories these days, but it's just not the same."
"And why didn't you think ahead and prevent all this from happening, Granny?"
"Sorry, dear. But it was a lot of fun while it lasted."
