skipsins

Skipsins are a fictional class of information-bearing agents featured in speculative fiction and tabletop role-playing games. The term is used to describe ultra-small tokens that carry instructions or data and can move between locations with minimal or no conventional latency. There is no real-world scientific evidence or consensus that such entities exist.

Origin of the term is uncertain; it combines “skip”—to jump over steps—and the suffix -sin, chosen for phonetic appeal in-universe. In stories, skipsins are described as nano-scale or quantum-scale entities that can attach to data streams and skip between network nodes, planets, or even spacetime regions.

They are typically depicted as enabling instant communications, instantaneous replication of digital states, or circumventing delays in computation. Some authors portray them as benign couriers; others treat them as destabilizing, risky technologies requiring safeguards.

Within their respective fictional universes, rules vary; there is no canonical, universally accepted mechanism. Writers may establish strict constraints or open interpretations, leading to a range of uses from plot devices to gameplay mechanics.

Related concepts in fiction include tachyons, quantum entanglement as imagined in literature, nanotechnology, and data tokens.