Another Friday whizzes into view like a perky anime robot companion, and with it comes a great boatload of cool and freaky science stories. So let’s bust them out and let them loose on your brains and mine!

Blue Seed On The Ocean

Speaking of anime, that is the first thing that popped into my mind when I read about a floating city called Blueseed. But it turns out that it is even nerdier than that : it is a city on a boat designed to house technology startups in international waters twelve miles out from Silicon Valley.

Now my first thought was “Why does this have to be a floating city in international waters?” What advantage does the project get from this? And in practical terms, there is none. Unless your “technology startup” is making an app to sell kiddie porn via Android, you do not need to be in international waters, ergo you do not need to be on a boat, let alone a floating city.

So I figure the real advantage is sheer, raw, hot geek appeal.

I mean, look at the thing!

That is why it already has 133 startups wanting to have offices there.

Because a floating city in international waters is just plain kewl!

To me, the obvious use for a city floating in international waters is as a sin city that would make Vegas look like Disneyland. But that is just me.

Driving Miss Nobody

Speaking of Vegas and by extension Nevada, the state of Nevada recently broke exciting new ground by granting a driver’s license to one of Google’s driverless cars.

Now, loyal readers will know that we love driverless cars here at FSW, so you just know we had to be all over this story the moment we first read it.

And yup, the car got a driver’s license. And this was no pro forma transaction. It had to pass the exact same practical exam as any human driver, with stern Nevada driving examiners judging its every move as it drove on the highway, through residential neighborhoods, and even down the famous Vegas Strip.

And it passed! So the driverless car future just got that much closer today. In a way, passing this hurdle is like passing a driving Turing Test. If the car can drive so well that you cannot tell the difference between it and a human driver (except it probably uses more turn signals and less profanity), then we can say it is truly artificial (driving) intelligence.

I am sure there are many more hurdles to clear before this intelligence shows up in consumer vehicles. In fact, it might show up in fixed route trucking first, or even buses. Something where all that is required is to follow the same route every time, thus minimizing the variables the AI has to deal with and allowing the software to rack up tons of miles of records to use in the consumer models to follow.

Virtual Ink For A Virtual World

Check this out : imagine having a tattoo that you could change as easily as you change the wallpaper on your computer desktop, or even make disappear? Sounds very cyberpunk, doesn’t it?

Well cyberpunk is now, because a company called MoodInq has invented a programmable “canvas” that you get implanted under your skin, and from that point on, with just a wave of their proprietary “wand” and the use of your computer (be it desktop, laptop, or mobile), you have a magic tattoo that can look however you want it to look.

Is that not outrageously cool? I mean, I am a little squeamish about body modification, so I am not reasl keen to have something implanted under my skin, but it is still mighty tempting. The company says they have a database of over 250K tattoo designs, and of course, you are free to make your own.

Because I have a deep desire to mess with people’s heads, I would love to have a tattoo that slowly changes over the time, so that people are scratching their heads and saying “Wait a minute, there wasn’t a tiger on that desert island before!” or something like that.

Or have an ever-shifting Rorschach pattern as a tattoo, and ask people what they see there.

Right now, it is greyscale only, which is fine for its aim of looking like a real tattoo. Plenty of tattoos are black and white.

Owe Em Gee Japan

Finally, we like to finish with a bang here at FSW, and usually that means that we finish off with what we consider to be the hottest or most exciting story of the week.

But occasionally, this final slot is instead filled by something so gobsmackingly bizarre and messed up that no other story could survive going on after it.

And usually, that thing comes from Japan. To wit : Nobohiru Takahashi’s amazingly realistic robot butt.

You read that correctly. It is a completely artificial but startlingly realistic robot rear end.

Brace yourself, because there’s a video.

Cronenberg meets William Gibson meets ass fetishes?

My favorite part of the video is how the text at the beginning tries to make it sound like a serious scientific project before degenerating later into obvious glee at the perverted perfect of their spankable assbot. Note how you cannot, at any time, see the demontrator’s face.

I think it is obvious that the true intention of this product is to make the next generation of sex dolls all that much more realistic. Sure, they have realistic silicon asses now, but they are lifeless and unresponsive. How much fun can it be to feel up then spank that?

Much better if it rubs up against your hand then quivers in fear, right?

I am sure the next innovation will be butt cheek that redden the more you slap them. Get that rosy glow that reminds our primitive brains of the swollen red vulva of a female going!

Japan, you do pervert right.

Seeya next week, folks!