Spime: A Theory Object

The link to Bruce Sterling's speech at Emerging Technology 2006 is online at:
http://www.viridiandesign.org/2006/03/viridian-note-00459-emerging.html

"In the Internet of Things debate, people are still trying to find the loose
verbal grab-bag just to put the concepts into. So I would argue that this work
is basically a literary endeavour. When it comes to remote technical
eventualities, you don't want to freeze the language too early. Instead, you
need some empirical evidence on the ground, some working prototypes, something
commercial, governmental, academic or military.... Otherwise you are trying to
freeze an emergent technology into the shape of today's verbal descriptions.
This prejudices people. It is bad attention economics. It limits their ability
to find and understand the intrinsic advantages of the technology."

"It's turning into what Julian Bleecker calls a "Theory Object," which is an idea
which is not just a mental idea or a word, but a cloud of associated commentary
and data, that can be passed around from mouse to mouse, and linked-to. Every
time I go to an event like this, the word "spime" grows as a Theory Object. A
Theory Object is a concept that's accreting attention, and generating visible,
searchable, rankable, trackable trails of attention."

Julian Bleeker's 'Manifesto for Networked Objects' is here: http://research.techkwondo.com/files/WhyThingsMatter.pdf