Spime is a
neologism
A neologism Greek νέο- ''néo''(="new") and λόγος /''lógos'' meaning "speech, utterance"] is a relatively recent or isolated term, word, or phrase that may be in the process of entering common use, but that has not been fully accepted int ...
for a futuristic object, characteristic to the
Internet of Things,
that can be tracked through space and time throughout its lifetime.
They are essentially virtual master objects that can, at various times, have physical incarnations of themselves.
An object can be considered a spime when all of its essential information is stored in the cloud.
sees spimes as coming through the convergence of six emerging technologies, related to both the manufacturing process for consumer goods, and through identification and location technologies. Depending on context, the term "spime" can refer to both—the archetype, as designed by the developer, or a user-specific instance of it.
Origin
The term spime was coined for this concept by author
Bruce Sterling. It is a contraction of "space" and "time", and was probably first used in a large public forum by Sterling at
SIGGRAPH Los Angeles, August 2004.
The idea was further expanded upon in his book
Shaping Things.
Since, the use of the term by researchers and in industry has grown.
Concept
The six facets of spimes are:
# Small, inexpensive means of remotely and uniquely identifying objects over short ranges; for example
radio-frequency identification.
# A mechanism to precisely locate something on Earth, such as a
global-positioning system.
# A way to
mine
Mine, mines, miners or mining may refer to:
Extraction or digging
* Miner, a person engaged in mining or digging
*Mining, extraction of mineral resources from the ground through a mine
Grammar
*Mine, a first-person English possessive pronoun
...
large amounts of data for things that match some given criteria, like internet
search engines
A search engine is a software system designed to carry out web searches. They search the World Wide Web in a systematic way for particular information specified in a textual web search query. The search results are generally presented in a ...
.
# Tools to virtually construct nearly any kind of object;
computer-aided design.
# Ways to
rapidly prototype virtual objects into real ones. Sophisticated, automated fabrication of a specification for an object, through “
three-dimensional printers.”
# "
Cradle-to-cradle
Cradle-to-cradle design (also referred to as 2CC2, C2C, cradle 2 cradle, or regenerative design) is a biomimetic approach to the design of products and systems that models human industry on nature's processes, where materials are viewed as nutri ...
" life-spans for objects. Cheap, effective
recycling
Recycling is the process of converting waste materials into new materials and objects. The recovery of energy from waste materials is often included in this concept. The recyclability of a material depends on its ability to reacquire the p ...
.
With all six of these, one could track the entire existence of an object, from before it was made (its virtual representation), through its manufacture, its ownership history, its physical location, until its eventual obsolescence and breaking-down back into raw material to be used for new instantiations of objects. If recorded, the lifetime of the object can be archived and queried.
Spimes are not defined merely by these six technologies; rather, if these technologies converge within the manufacturing process then spimes could indeed arise. Due to physical limitations and cost-effectiveness, objects that perform similar functions to a spime but exist in a heterogeneous ecosystem where some of their spime-like functionality is performed by and/or shared with other entities may be precursors to spimes. For example, integrating a GPS receiver into every object is currently impractical because of size, power, and cost, among other reasons, but a base station that provides location services for one or many nearby devices may be more practical.
See also
Similar terms
*
Hyperlinked object
*
Blogject
*
Everyware
Related terms
*
Internet of Things
*
Semantic Web
*
Ambient intelligence
In computing, ambient intelligence (AmI) refers to electronic environments that are sensitive and responsive to the presence of people. Ambient intelligence was a projection on the future of consumer electronics, telecommunications and comput ...
*
Big data
*
Machine-to-machine Machine to machine (M2M) is direct communication between devices using any communications channel, including wired and wireless.
Machine to machine communication can include industrial instrumentation, enabling a sensor or meter to communicate th ...
*
Web 2.0
Web 2.0 (also known as participative (or participatory) web and social web) refers to websites that emphasize user-generated content, ease of use, participatory culture and interoperability (i.e., compatibility with other products, systems, and ...
*
Cradle-to-cradle design
Cradle-to-cradle design (also referred to as 2CC2, C2C, cradle 2 cradle, or regenerative design) is a biomimetic approach to the design of products and systems that models human industry on nature's processes, where materials are viewed as nutr ...
*
Cyberspace
*
Augmented reality
*
Hyperreality
Described by Jean Baudrillard, the concept of hyperreality captures the inability to distinguish "The Real" (a term borrowed from Jacques Lacan) from the signifier of it. This is more prominent in technologically advanced societies. Hyperreality ...
References
Bruce Sterling's talk “Shaping of Things to Come” given on December 13, 2004 at the
Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich.
Bruce Sterling's talk- Lift Conference, Sept 12, 2007. 12 minutes.
The Internet of Things: What is a Spime and why is it useful? given on Google Tech Talks April 30, 2007. 49 min 5 sec
External links
On the Path to a Spime-Filled Future: Proto-SpimesAmbient Findability: Talking with Peter Morville, Boxesandarrows, Liz Danzico
{{Ambient intelligence
Neologisms