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There is now a CONTENT FREEZE for Mercury while we switch to a new platform. It began on Friday, March 10 at 6pm and will end on Wednesday, March 15 at noon. No new content can be created during this time, but all material in the system as of the beginning of the freeze will be migrated to the new platform, including users and groups. Functionally the new site is identical to the old one. webteam@gatech.edu
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The Google Car prototype sure is cute. And as Megan Garber already explained on these pages, it’s cute because it hopes to convey familiarity and comfort while eschewing “creepiness,” that scourge of technology that arises when it seems out of place, over the line.
Garber rightly connects the Google Car’s cuteness to Japanese kawaii culture. Japanese cuteness produces a sense of protection and innocence that appeals to us; it is neotenic, deliberately juvenile. In Japan, this approach to cuteness has been ingrained in national culture. All Nippon Airways has a series of widebody Boeing jets with Pokémon livery. The popular character Domo-kun got his start as the official mascot of the Japan Broadcasting Corporation. It even adorns cars, like the service vehicles for the Japanese air conditioning manufacturing company Daikin, which already way out-cute Google’s efforts.
