Shaping Things
is a pretty little book that packs a serious punch about history and the future. I first purchased it days after its publication. Loved the book, then went on to being engrossed in Kevin Kelly's
Out of Control
and
What Technology Wants
. I have since returned to reading Shaping Things and see it as one of the smartest of my futurist vision books.
Below are the frameworks and definitions Sterling proposes in
Shaping Things
, and I feel presenting them here is the best promotion of the book I can provide.
Chapter 2. Tomorrow Composts Today. Major terms and framework: Artifacts. Machines. Products. Gizmos. Spimes.
1) Artifacts: (def) Simple artificial objects. Made by hand, powered by muscle, created one at a time. People with an infrastructure of Artifacts are "Hunters and Farmers ".
2) Machines: (def) Complex, precisely proportioned artifacts with many moving parts tapped into a non-muscle power source. People using an infrastructure of Machines are "Customers".
Sterling the asks how to draw the line between an era of "hunters and farmers" and an era of "customers". How marks a "Line of No Return" and a "Line of Empire". I especially like the "Line of Empire".
Sterling dates the advent of Machine technoculture to the eclipse of the Mongols in the 1500's. "Before that time, an Artifact culture of bows and horses could blacken the earth with its rampaging hordes. After that date, the world is at the mercy of the West, as mechanization takes command."
3) Products: (def) Widely distributed, commercially available objects, anonymously and uniformly manufactured in massive quantities, using a planned division of labor with rapid non-artisanal, assembly line techniques, operating over continental economies of scale, supported by reliable transportation, finance and information systems. People within an infrastructure of Products are "Consumers".
Sterling dates the advent of Products to the period around World War I.
4) Gizmos: (def) Highly unstable, user-alterable, baroquely multi-featured objects, commonly programable, with a brief lifespan. Also they are often linked to network service providers; they are not stand -alone objects but interfaces. People within an infrastructure of Gizmos are "End-Users".
Sterling writes "Unlike Artifacts, Machines, and Products, Gizmos have enough functionality to actively nag people. Their deployment demands extensive, sustained interaction: upgrades, grooming, plug-ins, plug-outs, unsought messages, security threats, and so forth."
The Gizmo epoch begins in 1989.
5) Spimes: (def) Manufactured objects, with informational support so extensive they are regarded as material instantiations of an immaterial system. Spimes begin and end as data. They are designed on screens, fabricated by digital means, and precisely tracked through space and time throughout their earthly sojourn. People within an infrastructure of Spimes are "Wranglers".
Sterling writes "Spimes are sustainable, enhanceable, uniquely identifiable, and made of substances that can and will be folded back into the production stream of future Spimes. Eminently data-mineable, Spimes are the protagonists of an historical process."
Sterling dates the Spime epoch beginning in 2004, when the Department of Defense demanded its suppliers attach Radio Frequency ID tags, or "arphids", to military supplies.
Sterling writes "I'll be spending the rest of this little book exploring what a Spime might be, or become, and how people will interact with Spimes. There are no such things as true Spimes yet -these are still speculative, imaginary concepts. I will try to make the case that Spimes are genuine prospects for genuine in the future, and worthy of designer's attention. I hope to persuade you that clever young people had better get used to these ideas."
Later in the book Sterling goes into lengthy qualification that Spimes are the answer to our sustainability/pollution problem, due to their ability to track themselves and assist and manage the sending of themselves to the proper disposal and recycling center.
The above should give a good sense of
Shaping Things
-what it offers, what it is about, and enough of a sample of terms and quotes to see its genius.
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... 5 chapters of this book and I did not like. WhOMever wrote this really had to think a ...
Reviewed in the United States on February 26, 2015
I read only 5 chapters of this book and I did not like. WhOMever wrote this really had to think a lot of HIMself. He think he has the authority to simply make up words willy nillty and then fail to explain them in simple ways a college student could understand by quickly scanning the text for a response. He even took words like RFID and make up new words for these things that already exist, just to make himself sound smarter. Also he uses a lot of random fonts for specific words which is terrible.Here are some examples;arfidSPIMEwrangling spimes"a spime techosociety will be composed of wranglers""These informational microhistories are subject to well-nigh endless exploration"would not recocmend
Reviewed in the United States on February 26, 2015
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