The Tech Conference Show - Bruce Sterling (ETech #002)
The Tech Conference Show - Bruce Sterling (MP3 6.43 mb 9 minutes 18 seconds)
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Bruce Sterling, visionary author of The Hacker Crackdown, was one of the keynote speakers at ETech, talking about “The Internet of Things.” I caught up to ask him what this was, his views on ubbiquitous computing, and pointing out that if you had written all about ETech in 1956 it would have been the greatest SF novel the world would have ever seen.
March 9th, 2006 at 6:26 am
All in a name
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Bruce’s thesis is on tagging and sorting of physical objects - I agree with the general theme.
However, the potential of the physical / digital collide goes far beyond tagging as Bruce hints at, and his creation of a new name - spimes - for these future nodes of collisions between the physical / digital world means at least we can talk about this.
Even if as Bruce says, the name may not be right - it’s certainly good enough.
That objects can and will become combined with metadata, as Bruce proposes, seems likely, however objects themselves and their properties can be defined by instructions sets (the process of CAD diagram to physical object through “printing”) and interact with metadata or physical interaction to change physical function or form (as per concepts of origami electronics and shape memory etc).
That software compiles to an instruction set that runs on hardware which can be defined by another instruction set compiled from CAD diagrams and that both instructions set interact to create the required result, means there are two ways of achieving this.
Traditionally the easier way is to change the software, however as printing electronics and objects becomes more advanced and common this may change.
To complicate matters, the concepts of origami electronics and other such ideas is that the physical functions on a object may change with interaction with the physical world. An “electronic” sheet of paper which folded one way act as a TV set, folded another way becomes a calculator and if you tear of a piece of the paper you have an alarm clock.
Such interactions could be from metadata, and are not limited to just user interaction (tearing, folding) but could include shape memory type affects (where the object changes shape itself due to some other interaction).
A jacket that changes it’s properties according to the weather or fluoresces bright colours when you are trying to find it in the mountain of coats left at a party, or bright red when someone else takes it - calling your phone at the same time and telling you where it is and who’s got it.
The jacket, could have been one designed by yourself - printed by you, with the customisation you want and the interactions with meta data and other physical events you require.
Tagging and sorting? Yes to begin with, but the collision between the physical and digital extends far beyond this.
Do developers of the future need to worry about writing in software and CAD diagrams at the same time or do we have new languages some form of “Spime” Script which is compiled into both physical and digital instruction sets, such decisions of where the boundary lies being made by the compiler?
These are the things we can start to discuss and understand, for the last ten years I have talked with many others on this potential change, often finding it incredibly difficult to communicate the impact of what was going on and how this would change.
It wasn’t until Bruce’s talk that I realised how important a name was, and what an obstacle not having a name had become or that using older names such as objects was.
Spimes it is and now we can talk about it.
March 16th, 2006 at 7:18 am
[...] Here’s the audio: Tech Conference Show - Bruce Sterling (ETech #002) Thursday, March 9th, 2006 (MP3, 6.43 mb 9 minutes 18 seconds). [...]