Spime

noun: a real life physical object with knowledge of itself.

possesing the following characteristics:
1)small, inexpensive means of remotely and uniquely identifying objects over short ranges; in other words, radio-frequency identification.
2)a mechanism to precisely locate something on earth, such as a global-positioning system.
3)a way to mine large amounts of data for things that match some given criteria, like internet search engines.
4)tools to virtually construct nearly any kind of object; computer-aided design.
5)ways to rapidly prototype virtual objects into real ones. sophisticated, automated fabrication of a specification for an object, through “three-dimensional printers.”
6)“cradle-to-cradle” life-spans for objects. cheap, effective recycling.

spimes are objects precisely located in sp-ce and time.
they have histories. they are recorded, tracked, inventoried, and always -ssociated with a story.

spimes have ident-ties, they are protagonists of a doc-mented process.

they are searchable, like google. you can think of spimes as being auto-googling objects.

(coined by bruce sterling at siggraph 2004)
“where the heck did i put my keys?”
“they got spime?”
“sure!”
“then google them man!”