For weeks, the internet has been buzzing about Google's sexy secret project, a massive barge piled with customized shipping containers floating in the San Francisco Bay. Was it a secret data center, soon to be outside national jurisdiction? A rejuvenation lab for Ray Kurzweil? No. The truth is much worse.
Photos by Daniel Terdiman
It turns out that Google is using the barge as a marketing device. In an open letter to journalists, a Google rep said, "Although it's still early days and things may change, we're exploring using the barge as an interactive space where people can learn about new technology." Daniel Terdiman, the journalist who broke the barge story in the first place, wrote yesterday that it will also be "a temporary exhibit space." Here's an artist's rendering of what it will look like when complete:
Translation: We will bring advertisers and potential partners here to wear Google Glass devices, take smart drugs, and spitball about how Google is totally going to change the future, man.
Am I being too harsh, here? This seems like a horrible waste of an amazing design for a post-apocalyptic data haven.