Taides

Taides is a fictional term used in speculative fiction and tabletop games to describe a class of small, modular agents designed to assist humans in exploration, labor, and artistic production. In many depictions, a taide is a self-contained unit that can reconfigure its form by rearranging modular components and can operate autonomously or under user guidance. Groups of taides can form swarms to undertake large tasks or to perform collaborative art and research projects.

Form and capabilities attributed to taides include flexible physical form, energy harvesting from ambient light or chemical sources, environmental sensing, and simple autonomous decision-making powered by embedded AI. They communicate via low-latency mesh networks and are designed to be repairable or upgradable by swapping modules. Common roles for taides include personal assistants, field tools, or exploration aids, and they frequently serve as narrative devices for exploring the relationship between humans and intelligent artifacts.

Origins of the concept appear in late 21st-century science fiction and game narratives, where authors use taides to explore themes of labor, creativity, and identity. The term has since appeared in various fan works, tabletop materials, and cross-media stories, sometimes with variations in governance and design of taide swarms.

As a literary and gaming construct, taides remain fictional; no real-world devices named taides exist outside these works.

See also

- Smart dust

- Programmable matter

- Swarm robotics

- Autonomous agents

- Digital artworks