Every once in a while, I read a piece about the future of technology that makes the hairs on the back of my head stand up. Something that really is visionary, that changes the way I think about the future. I think Paul Ford's semantic web article was the last to do that. Until I read Bruce Sterling's speech "When Blobjects Rule the Earth".
In my grand vision, there's a history of the relationship of objects and human beings. It goes like this. Up to the present day, during previous history, we humans have had. and made, four different classes of possible objects. These classes of objects are called, in order of their historical appearance, Artifacts, Machines, Products, and Gizmos.The lines between Artifacts, Machines, Products and Gizmos aren't mechanical. They're historical. The differences between them are found in the material cultures they make possible. The kind of society they produce, and the kind of human being that is necessary to make them and use them.
Artifacts are made and used by hunter-gatherers and subsistence farmers.
Machines are made and used by customers. in an industrial society.
Products are made and used by consumers, in a military-industrial complex.
While Gizmos are made and used by end-users, in whatever today is == a "New World Disorder," a "Terrorism-Entertainment Complex," our own brief interregnum.
. . .
The next stage is an object that does not exist yet. It needs a noun, so that we can think about it. We can call it a "Spime," which is a neologism for an imaginary object that is still speculative. A Spime also has a kind of person who makes it and uses it, and that kind of person is somebody called a "Wrangler." At the moment, you are end-using Gizmos. My thesis here, my prophesy to you, is that, pretty soon, you will be wrangling Spimes.
Read on to discover the future. Spime Wrangling, here we come!
| Gadgets | History |
Whew. Love that talk--what a brilliant, leaping application of the "What if everything had a webpage?" idea to product design. The sustainability angle is the best part—and also the weakest, at least in its determinism. There are many ways now to learn how to get rid of an object we're through using. There are even some companies that will help us with that. But that doesn't make it inevitable that we will move those atoms where they need to go. Splimes may know everything about themselves, but that info needs to be manageable by individuals and groups and then we still need incentives to act on it.
Comment #1 :: link :: August 18, 2004 06:02 PM
