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Ambient Informatics develops cross-disciplinary approaches to the design and development of next-generation systems that address the complexities and of real-time, real-world information, and effective human interaction. |
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| Thursday, October 21, 2004 |
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On the topic of Science Fiction, Blobjects, and Spime...
The previous reminded me of my post on Feb 16, 2002 mentioning "The Machine Stops" by E.M. Forster. Originally published in 1909, you could re-tell the story today (almost a find and replace) as "The Internet-of-Things Stops". Worth another read...
4:15:23 PM
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Spimed by Blobjects
I appreciate Bruce Sterling. Apparently his Siggraph 2004 talk, "When Blobjects Rule the Earth" and his Wired piece "Dumbing Down Smart Objects" has kicked up some (smart) dust in an article called "Spimed" by Adam Greenfield (which includes many nifty links and references - even a George Lackoff pointer - cool). Lets remember that Mr. Sterling is pegged (rightly or not) as a Science Fiction writer. Science Fiction was defined by professor Dennis Kratz at UTD (in a Lit-Crit class focused on the history of Science Fiction - really) as being "fantasy made plausible by the rhetoric of science". And that the real social-historical significance of Science Fiction is to make us aware of potential politico/techno/socio problems and the consequences of these (real on earth) problems but - framed as distant, entertaining and more importantly, subversive, "Science Fiction". Bruce is just doing his job, and he is right on, again. These things will happen - in one form or another. Its up to designers and engineers to know as much as possible about scenarios of Blobjects and Spime gone bad, in order to be better informed to responsibly design around the potential, dreaded "unintended consequences"...and possibly do the right things, right.
I have seen this coming as well. For the last 2+ years, I have been wading through the hype and reality looking for the right ways to work toward "Intelligent Networks, Smart Objects, Designed for Humans". Good to see a great debate around this - coming from some really smart folks...
Spimed.
Here's an interesting contribution to the spime debate. I don't think it can be properly described as an "argument" yet, because none of the parties involved as yet quite know what we are talking about. I'm inclined to think that spiming is a way for critical busybodies like myself and Adam Greenfield to get *more* involved in product development, rather than less involved, as Greenfield seems to be suggesting here. I like to think that a year from now this spime notion will be less inchoate, but neologisms don't always work that way. Does "cyberspace" mean more now than it did in the 1980s, or less? http://v-2.org/displayArticle.php?article_num=860 Spimed Even if Greenfield rubs you the wrong way here, the links are good. Any article with good links is good no matter what the author says. [Beyond the Beyond]
3:39:49 PM
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