Comments on: Spimes, Motes and Data Centres http://eightbar.co.uk/2008/03/04/spimes-motes-and-data-centres/ Raising The Eight Bar Mon, 06 Oct 2008 16:49:54 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=abc By: csven http://eightbar.co.uk/2008/03/04/spimes-motes-and-data-centres/#comment-233626 csven Wed, 05 Mar 2008 10:40:47 +0000 http://eightbar.co.uk/2008/03/04/spimes-motes-and-data-centres/#comment-233626 I used the wrong word - "relevant" - above. That should be relative: "...sometimes that information is <em>relative</em> to their surroundings" Apologies. That said, I agree that from a systems perspective the environment is effectively inseparable from the object, but the original perspective was what I'd call in this instance an inverted systems approach in that the Object (and its efficient reclamation) was an inseparable issue in regards to the Environment. One's a top-down approach. The other is a bottom-up. Put another way, one is corporate and one is DIY. Adding sensors is a difficult but relatively straight forward technical proposition (and one person I'd credit with advancing the "spime" concept long before it was coined is - last I checked - working on just such spime-like shipping containers as we speak). Less straight forward is the willingness of companies to encode blueprints into the objects they create and allow anyone to access them; a social issue entangled in all sorts of proprietary strings. I've little doubt the biggest issue facing spime-enabled shipping containers is getting accurate and honest disclosures from people trying to hide something. - Speaking of which, I downloaded the CAD files for the Openmoko cell phone yesterday. My experience suggests that another one of those proprietary strings is CAD file formats. I used the wrong word - “relevant” - above. That should be relative:

“…sometimes that information is relative to their surroundings”

Apologies.

That said, I agree that from a systems perspective the environment is effectively inseparable from the object, but the original perspective was what I’d call in this instance an inverted systems approach in that the Object (and its efficient reclamation) was an inseparable issue in regards to the Environment. One’s a top-down approach. The other is a bottom-up.

Put another way, one is corporate and one is DIY.

Adding sensors is a difficult but relatively straight forward technical proposition (and one person I’d credit with advancing the “spime” concept long before it was coined is - last I checked - working on just such spime-like shipping containers as we speak).

Less straight forward is the willingness of companies to encode blueprints into the objects they create and allow anyone to access them; a social issue entangled in all sorts of proprietary strings. I’ve little doubt the biggest issue facing spime-enabled shipping containers is getting accurate and honest disclosures from people trying to hide something.

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Speaking of which, I downloaded the CAD files for the Openmoko cell phone yesterday. My experience suggests that another one of those proprietary strings is CAD file formats.

]]> By: epredator http://eightbar.co.uk/2008/03/04/spimes-motes-and-data-centres/#comment-233613 epredator Wed, 05 Mar 2008 09:23:07 +0000 http://eightbar.co.uk/2008/03/04/spimes-motes-and-data-centres/#comment-233613 @csven I may have abstracted upward a little :-) The motes and Spimes and the principles are veyr similar. We have a balance here of a generic spime saying generic things with emergent behaviour e.g. a spime saying I am hot may well be relevant in gathering surroundings. I still expect there to be custom sensors, as that is what we have a the moment. The key is to pull the information together. Really I was pointing out that we need these concepts in virtual worlds as much as real life. :-) For those of you who want to know what a kirkyan is check out Csvens rebang blog <a href="http://blog.rebang.com/?p=786" rel="nofollow">here </a> @csven I may have abstracted upward a little :-) The motes and Spimes and the principles are veyr similar. We have a balance here of a generic spime saying generic things with emergent behaviour e.g. a spime saying I am hot may well be relevant in gathering surroundings. I still expect there to be custom sensors, as that is what we have a the moment. The key is to pull the information together.
Really I was pointing out that we need these concepts in virtual worlds as much as real life. :-)
For those of you who want to know what a kirkyan is check out Csvens rebang blog here

]]> By: The Grid Live » Second Life News for March 5, 2008 http://eightbar.co.uk/2008/03/04/spimes-motes-and-data-centres/#comment-233539 The Grid Live » Second Life News for March 5, 2008 Wed, 05 Mar 2008 04:46:25 +0000 http://eightbar.co.uk/2008/03/04/spimes-motes-and-data-centres/#comment-233539 [...] From: eightbar Spimes, Motes and Data Centres Quote from the site - A few of you may have noticed recent coverage around on the blogs about Michael Osias’s 3d datacentres. Ugotrade has as usual a great write up and analysis. You may have seen the work that our friend David Orban has been doing with OpenSpime. What’s that all about I here some of you ask? [...] [...] From: eightbar Spimes, Motes and Data Centres Quote from the site - A few of you may have noticed recent coverage around on the blogs about Michael Osias’s 3d datacentres. Ugotrade has as usual a great write up and analysis. You may have seen the work that our friend David Orban has been doing with OpenSpime. What’s that all about I here some of you ask? [...]

]]> By: David Orban http://eightbar.co.uk/2008/03/04/spimes-motes-and-data-centres/#comment-233453 David Orban Wed, 05 Mar 2008 00:27:43 +0000 http://eightbar.co.uk/2008/03/04/spimes-motes-and-data-centres/#comment-233453 Hey Ian, thanks for your great post. Yes, online worlds need spimes, or a spime-orientated culture, in order to understand that the objects talk to us, and we need to learn to listen better. These are manufactured objects, or natural objects. And the SpimeTalk they'll generate, as we give a voice to them we can hear, is going to be a rather high intensity communication. Orders of magnitude more intense than twitter. What this means is that the machine to machine aspect of the communication is the only possible direct means of gathering this information, and we are in dire need of efficiently automating the pattern extraction functions to derive second order knowledge from the raw data. Only then humans are going to be able and act upon what a spimified world is going to tell. Hey Ian, thanks for your great post.

Yes, online worlds need spimes, or a spime-orientated culture, in order to understand that the objects talk to us, and we need to learn to listen better. These are manufactured objects, or natural objects. And the SpimeTalk they’ll generate, as we give a voice to them we can hear, is going to be a rather high intensity communication. Orders of magnitude more intense than twitter.

What this means is that the machine to machine aspect of the communication is the only possible direct means of gathering this information, and we are in dire need of efficiently automating the pattern extraction functions to derive second order knowledge from the raw data. Only then humans are going to be able and act upon what a spimified world is going to tell.

]]> By: csven http://eightbar.co.uk/2008/03/04/spimes-motes-and-data-centres/#comment-233336 csven Tue, 04 Mar 2008 21:54:21 +0000 http://eightbar.co.uk/2008/03/04/spimes-motes-and-data-centres/#comment-233336 No offense, Ian, but I have my doubts this is the case. Granted, the definition might be changing (again), but as I recall, Sterling coined the term mostly from a recycling perspective. If you read up on what spimes include, you'll see mention of them containing the documentation used to build them... thus allowing them to be efficiently deconstructed (hence the frequent "cradle-to-grave" references). Spimes aren't about broadcasting information about their surroundings; they broadcast information about themselves... sometimes that information is relevant to their surroundings (e.g. location). While those servers might, by happenstance, contain the blueprints for the machines, I'm doubting that once the data storage portion is wiped that the blueprints remain embedded. Are they? - By the way, if they *are* spimes, they might also be early kirkyans since they've apparently been virtualized (to some extent). No offense, Ian, but I have my doubts this is the case. Granted, the definition might be changing (again), but as I recall, Sterling coined the term mostly from a recycling perspective.

If you read up on what spimes include, you’ll see mention of them containing the documentation used to build them… thus allowing them to be efficiently deconstructed (hence the frequent “cradle-to-grave” references). Spimes aren’t about broadcasting information about their surroundings; they broadcast information about themselves… sometimes that information is relevant to their surroundings (e.g. location).

While those servers might, by happenstance, contain the blueprints for the machines, I’m doubting that once the data storage portion is wiped that the blueprints remain embedded.

Are they?

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By the way, if they *are* spimes, they might also be early kirkyans since they’ve apparently been virtualized (to some extent).

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