Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Sretchable Paper

Everything I'm about to say would make so much more sense to be a computer program (and I'd like that too), but it would be just that much cooler if it could be made in a physical, analog format. Here goes:

Paper that you can stretch, expand, shrink or otherwise modify in the now famous iPod pinch type of way. So I take notes in a funny way, sort of like a brain storm by a 2nd grader. Part of the theory is that you can make connections that are logical rather than temporal. Problem is you run out of space or you go one way with the notes and can't connect them back to the others. With this paper you could expand more room on the sheet right where you need it.

I'm imagining some kind of (I'm sure toxic and earth-destroying) plasticy substance not unlike a combination of silly putty or pizza dough. But obviously you can write on it. And when you stretch a specific part you can do it with such acuity that you don't actually change the shape of the other writing. Similarly you could potentially shrink a given bit of text with the right type of pinch motion such that it kept its original balance of dimensions.

I understand that I am asking for a lot. And I know that seriously a computer program that could do this could do it much better and much more usefully (so somebody get on that). But again, how neat would a piece of paper that could do this be? And maybe the shape would get all weird like pizza dough too. And when you're done with your notes or whatever, you can make it into whatever shape you want at the edges.

Seriously. This is a keeper.

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