Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun an object that could be remotely tracked through space and time

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Coined by Bruce Sterling in 2004, as a blend of space and time.

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Examples

  • A "spime" the word -- a contraction of "space" and "time" -- was coined by sci-fi writer Bruce Sterling is an object that, thanks to GPS and sensors, is aware of where and when it is, and can record and communicate these data.

    OpenSpimes glyn moody 2008

  • And as Sterling had chosen a nonsense word for "spime" a concept with which I'd been previously familiar, I decided to do the same.

    Virtualizing the Physical 2007

  • Sterling is moving freely in the landscape he is examining and with a extraordinary open mind he creates new concepts and ways of thinking, and even new words -- like "spime".

    Archive 2006-01-01 Erik Stolterman 2006

  • Sterling is moving freely in the landscape he is examining and with a extraordinary open mind he creates new concepts and ways of thinking, and even new words -- like "spime".

    SPIMES Erik Stolterman 2006

  • A 'spime' should also encompass relationships between things, and not just the "thingness" itself. (b) the sound of it (as Adam noted above).

    UgoTrade 2009

  • There are a couple of things that have made me uncomfortable about the word 'spime': (a) the fact that it might be too easy to confuse with an "object".

    UgoTrade 2009

  • There are a couple of things that have made me uncomfortable about the word 'spime': (a) the fact that it might be too easy to confuse with an "object".

    UgoTrade 2009

  • I think about Bruce Sterling's "spime" in this context, and I see it as clearly connected to the tasks of the humanities and rhetoric and composition.

    digital digs 2009

  • A 'spime' should also encompass relationships between things, and not just the "thingness" itself. (b) the sound of it (as Adam noted above).

    UgoTrade 2009

  • There are a couple of things that have made me uncomfortable about the word 'spime': (a) the fact that it might be too easy to confuse with an "object".

    UgoTrade 2009

Comments

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  • see also enspiming

    October 17, 2007

  • But what does this, or enspiming, mean? Right now it's just like recursion. (See recursion.)

    October 18, 2007

  • 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.

    (Bruce Sterling, aka bruce flatware, Siggraph 2004)

    October 18, 2007

  • Chained_bear, you crack me up.

    October 29, 2008

  • Where is Borges when we need him?

    Paging el maestro novidente.

    October 29, 2008