Spime

Spime is a neologism for a currently theoretical object that can be tracked through space and time throughout its lifetime. The name "spime" for this concept was coined by author Bruce Sterling. Sterling 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.* "Spime" was probably first used in a large public forum by Sterling at SIGGRAPH Los Angeles, August 2004. The idea was further expanded upon in Shaping Things.

These six facets of spimes are:

1. Small, inexpensive means of remotely and uniquely identifying objects over short ranges; for example radio-frequency identification.
2. A mechanism to precisely locate something on Earth, such as a global-positioning system.
3. A way to mine large amounts of data for things that match some given criteria, like internet search engines.
4. Tools to virtually construct nearly any kind of object; computer-aided design.
5. Ways to rapidly prototype virtual objects into real ones. Sophisticated, automated fabrication of a specification for an object, through “three-dimensional printers.”
6. "Cradle-to-cradle" life-spans for objects. Cheap, effective recycling.

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 searched for.

Spimes are not defined merely by these six technologies; it is, rather, that if these technologies converge within the manufacturing process (CAD and automated manufacturing are already in wide use in the manufacture of many things today; RFIDs are becoming more and more prevalent in consumer goods) then spimes could indeed arise.

See also

• Internet of Things
• Augmented Reality
• Cradle to Cradle Design
• Cyberspace
• Design Fiction
• Everyware
• Hyperreality
• Semantic Web
• Spam

References

• When Blobjects Rule the Earth Speech by Bruce Sterling, at SIGGRAPH, Los Angeles, August 2004
• Sterling, Bruce (2005). Shaping Things. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press. ISBN 0-262-69326-7. "A SPIME is, by definition, the protagonist of a documented process. It is an historical entity with an accessible, precise trajectory through space and time." 
• Bruce Sterling's speech at the South by Southwest conference in March 2006 The "Spime Elevator Pitch" is about halfway through (22 min 30 sec.)
• Bruce Sterling's videoblog interview - Minnesota Stories, March 23, 2006. 6 minutes.
• Bruce Sterling's talk “Shaping of Things to Come”, given on December 13, 2004 at the Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich.
• Bruce Sterling's talk - Lift Conference, Feb 3, 2006. 34 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

• MIT PressLog: The Ultimate Guide to Spimes
• Beyond spimes: Kirkyans
• On the Path to a Spime-Filled Future: Proto-Spimes
• Ambient Findability: Talking with Peter Morville, Boxesandarrows, Liz Danzico
• spime.org: Design Fiction, Ubiquitous Computing and the Sentient City