En un futuro próximo, ¿viviremos otra realidad en Second Life? o ¿viviremos en una única realidad aumentada mediante spimes localizables en Google Earth?. Mientras que Second Life empieza a ser criticado por ser poco innovador (“sólo” replica creativamente los entornos físicos), parece que la segunda opción empieza a ganar adeptos, entre futuristas y diseñadores, pasando por el propio The Economist. Al fin y al cabo, parece más interesante vivir una única vida “enriquecida” por la tecnología que dos que sólo se conectan puntualmente y se enriquecen poco mútuamente.

En el video The Internet of Things: What is a Spime and why is it useful?, Bruce Sterling presenta sus ideas sobre el futuro de los objetos monitorizables desde Internet y de la propia Internet (tal como ya hizo en su libro Shaping Things) y Scott Klinker especula sobre como será “una vida con spimes”. Este es el resumen:

World-renowned Science Fiction writer and futurist Bruce Sterling will outline his ideas for SPIMES, a form of ubiquitous computing that gives smarts and ‘searchabiliity’ to even the most mundane of physical products. Imagine losing your car keys and being able to search for them with Google Earth.

This same paradigm will find you "wrangling" with product-lifecycle- management systems that do for physical objects what the iPod has done for music. These and other radical ideas are delivered in Sterling’s latest book`Shaping Things’. This concise book was written to inspire designers to visualize radical scenarios connecting information technology and sustainability in a new ecology of artifacts. Sterling suggests new connections between the virtual world and the physical world that will have you rethinking many of your assumptions about how we relate to products. .

He will be joined by Scott Klinker, 3-D Designer-in-Residence at Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, MI who leads a graduate design program known for giving form to experimental cultural ideas. Klinker’s own design work focuses on digital customization as industry shifts from mass production toward niche production in a networked society.

The presentation will include an invitation for Sterlling and Klinker/ Cranbrook to team-up with Google to create a short documentary film that would portray a speculative future of life with SPIMES. Distributed online, this short film would convey the look and feel of SPIME scenarios as a provocation for widespread industry discussion about the new potentials of ubiquitous, ambient, searchable, geolocative products. 

 

Por su parte, The Economist anuncia (A world of connections) que la computación ubícua basada en comunicación entre objetos (M2M) y las redes de sensores está empezando a convertirse en una realidad. Google Earth es otra realidad cada vez más potente, sólo resta conectar las piezas …

These ideas have been floating around for years, variously known as “ubiquitous computing”, “embedded networking” and “the pervasive internet”. The phenomenon “could well dwarf previous milestones in the information revolution”, according to a 2001 report entitled “Embedded, Everywhere” by America’s National Research Council, part of the respected National Academy of Sciences. A report by a United Nations agency in 2005 called it “The Internet of Things”.

But now it is actually starting to happen. Even governments have taken notice. Japan and South Korea have incorporated wireless technology into national policies, their sprawling IT conglomerates marching in lockstep with the political leaders. The European Union and America (where defence money paid for many of the advances) have issued thick reports.

For all the excitement, it will be a while before machine-to-machine (M2M) communications and sensor networks become ubiquitous. Although the technology exists, different approaches do not as yet work well together. Unlike computer software, which can be deployed with a few mouse-clicks, each system still needs to be tailor-made. And the melding of communications and computing brings together two industries and engineering cultures that are generally at odds, slowing progress. Moreover, the business models to justify the time and cost of adding wireless services are embryonic.

Vía Smart Mobs.

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  1. FYI: Un embrión de estos conceptos fue lo que llevamos a la práctica con el proyecto eLens con el MIT Medialab en Manresa. Creo que lo habías reseñado en su momento. http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2006/elens.html
    http://mobile.mit.edu/elens/

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