Science Fiction
Dictionary
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
 |
Funktionide Blob: A Video Love Story
Funktionide is a robotic blob made of electroactive polymers which provide the movement; it is an emotional robot that can cure lonely, disconnected people by providing them with the loving, non-judgemental contact that everyone needs.
See if you still believe all that stuff after looking at the video below.
(Funktionide blob cures loneliness video)
I really have to disagree with Funktionide creator Stefan Ulrich; a blob that crawls into bed with you is really not going to make me relax.
However, I gamely took my best shot at trying to think of a blob that was presented in a positive light in science fiction, which as a genre seems to mostly warn us about the danger posed by blobs.
Anyway, the only positively presented blob that I can recall is the Pinkness from Clifford Simak's excellent 1961 novel Time is the Simplest Thing. It is described as a... well, room-sized blob that is able to communicate telepathically with human beings.
Far away he saw the life - the thing that sprawled limply on the floor... it was pink: an exciting pink... the kind of pink the little girl next door might wear at her seventh birthday party.It was aware of him. And it was not afraid.
It was a fairly massive thing, twelve feet high or so in the middle of it, and it sprawled across an area twenty feet or more in diameter... It was just a lump.
Then he sensed the flutter... the flutter of the being that sprawled pinkly on the floor - the flutter of a thought half-formed, the beginning of communication...
And the creature spoke.
"Hi, pal," it said. "I trade with you my mind."
When you think about it, the Funktionide blob is really a kind of soft-bodied robot; in which vein, consider the Walking Gel Caterpillar Like The Blob! and the Gummi Bots: Biomimetic Soft-Bodied Robots .
Via dvice.
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 10/6/2009)
Follow this kind of news @Technovelgy.| Email | RSS | Blog It | Stumble | del.icio.us | Digg | Reddit |
Would
you like to contribute a story tip?
It's easy:
Get the URL of the story, and the related sf author, and add
it here.
Comment/Join discussion ( 8 )
Related News Stories - (" Robotics ")
Epirus High-Power Microwave Defeats Drones
'...the spreading beam of the deranging ray struck them, and Then one toppled and fell. Then another.' - Ray Cummings, 1931.
It's A Giant Robot! You Reporters Have Been Warned!
'... completely forgetting the ship at sight of the awesome figure and great head of the giant Gaut...'
Tactile Skin Supplier Map
'What strange sensitivity! What an amazing development of science was manifested in every move and act and word of this Robot!' - Ray Cummings, 1931.
Robot Bees 3D Printed By Festo
'At first I was struck by the large size of these bees..' - Ernst Junger, 1957.
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
Science Fiction
Timeline
1600-1899
1900-1939
1940's 1950's
1960's 1970's
1980's 1990's
2000's 2010's
Current News
'If Anyone Is Watching Earth...'
'Our study of your race has convinced us that you are not fitted to leave your planet in the present state of your civilization.'
Epirus High-Power Microwave Defeats Drones
'...the spreading beam of the deranging ray struck them, and Then one toppled and fell. Then another.'
Cloud Of Space Rubbish From China's Long March Rocket
'Within seconds the material was spread out over fifty yards, in a matter of hours it might occupy several cubic miles of space...'
Biomimetic Tendons From Rochu Robotics
'... the curious parallelism to animal motions.'
Living Human Neuron Biological Compute Rack
'The men are dead, but their acquired wisdom lives on and I am the beneficiary.'
Martha Stewart Approves Ojai 'Living Room On Wheels'
'Young people found the driverless car admirable for petting.'
ESA's Draco To Study Heat Of Reentry
'...a synthetic which air-friction would erode.'
Buy A Galaxy? Maybe Start Smaller
'The sky is the limit' just got higher.
The United States Space Academy Is Official
'Is our orbit to Space Academy clear?'
Is There A Global Problem With Who Is Having Children?
'After twenty generations of shillyshallying...'
You Will Eat The Cookies Made From Plastic...
'Our planes are going to start bringing in bales of discarded plastics...'
It's A Giant Robot! You Reporters Have Been Warned!
'... completely forgetting the ship at sight of the awesome figure and great head of the giant Gaut...'
Birds Learn To Sing Pictures ala Frank Herbert's Distrans
'We will fight in the time of fighting.'
ElectionSim: China's 'Ender's Game' Battle Sim, Or Lem's 'Kingdom In A Box'?
'So, Ender, we will now begin your education.'
Tactile Skin Supplier Map
'What strange sensitivity! What an amazing development of science was manifested in every move and act and word of this Robot!'
Flock Stymied By 'Adversarial Fashion'
'Forget the head atop it, the legs below, feet, arms, hands. It compels erasure.'
