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Ayanna Nahmias, Editor-in-ChiefLast Modified: 14:26 PM EDT, 27 September 2012

MOUNTAIN VIEW, California - Google continues to be on the bleeding edge of technology which is reflected in the public’s increased demand for its innovative solutions, and its stock which is currently trading at $754.80 per share.

Google, like Star Trek which presented revolutionary technology in television and film, i.e. the Tricorder which approximates cell phones developed decades later, is shaping the future.

Now, Google has developed a self-driving Toyota Prius that is reminiscent of the cartoon series ‘The Jetsons,’ minus levitation.

However, levitation may not be far behind as Google continues to push the envelope by developing technology that will reduce human error. On Tuesday, 25 September 2012, Gov. Jerry Brown test drove or rather rode to Google headquarters in a self-driving Toyota Prius.

Following this momentous experience, he signed legislation that will pave the way for driverless cars in California. “The bill by Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla will establish safety and performance regulations to test and operate autonomous vehicles on state roads and highways” (Source: AP)

Yet, this incredible news should be tempered with caution as it harkens back to a short story written in 1947 by Jack Williamson.

In his tale, main character, Mr. Sledge, invents ‘The Humanoids,’ to make man’s life easier, to help humanity, and to be invulnerable to human exploitation. However, he eventually realized that they had instead taken control of humanity, in the name of their Prime Directive, to make human’s happy.’ (Read Full Story Summary Here)

Though it is not a one-to-one comparison, it is evidence of human beings' increased reliance on technology which sometimes has good and bad effects. The Internet is a prime example of a tool of unimaginable power to provide information on anything one would ever want to know, but it is also misused by unscrupulous individuals for nefarious intents.

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Published: 27 September 2012 (Page 2 of 2)

Within the context of the story referenced above, Sledge is similar to Google co-founder Sergey Brin who also believes that "self-driving cars can really dramatically improve the quality of life for everyone."

When asked during an interview with NPR about the expected mass production of this technology and any partnerships with specific automobile manufacturers, Brin predicted that autonomous vehicles will be commercially available within a decade.

The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers expressed concern that California is moving too quickly to embrace self-driving cars, but this push back is likely based on market share and competition since many automobile manufacturers have also been developing self-driving vehicle technology.

In fact, 'car makers such as Audi AG, BMW AG, Ford Motor Co. and Volvo have been working on autonomous car technology for years. In most new cars varying degrees of autonomous function exists, such as self-parking, lane departure warnings, and adaptive cruise-control, which allows vehicles to automatically accelerate and decelerate with the flow of traffic.' (Source: AP)

But Google is the only company to develop the driverless car technology and move this from concept to implementation. The company's fleet of a dozen computer-controlled vehicles has logged more than 300,000 miles of self-driving without an accident, according to Google.

It is an exciting development, but Californians shouldn't throw away their car keys just yet. Next steps in moving this closer to consumer use is for the CA Department of Motor Vehicles to weigh in and draft regulations on how this could be integrated into the current licensing process flow.

The DMV has until 1 January 2015 to draft the legislation, but it is a certainty that despite the ability to operate autonomously, a licensed and insured driver will still need to accompany the car in case of malfunction or other emergency which would require human intervention.

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Twitter: @nahmias_report Editor: @ayannanahmias

Ayanna Nahmias, Editor-in-ChiefLast Modified: 17:27 PM EDT, 6 June 2012

Ray Bradbury, by MP, 3.18.2011 (Photo by Poditty 444)

LOS ANGELES, California – Ray Bradbury, the prolific writer who is considered one of the prophets of science fiction, lived his life doing the thing he loved. According to published reports, Bradbury died at age 91 and up until the end he was an inhabitant of all the universes found in literature. Today, his daughter informed the Associated press of he died during the night of Tuesday, 5 June 2012.

In the video at the end of this post, “A Conversation with Ray Bradbury,“ viewers are given the pleasure of watching a man in his 80’s who is sharp, vibrant, and as exuberant as any man half his age. He starts the interview with a quote that should be a mantra for each one of us.

“Love is at the center of your life. The things that you do should be the things that you love. The things that you love should be the things that you do. So that’s what you learn from book.”

First and foremost, Bradbury did not classify his writing as science fiction, because his initial exposure to writing at age 3, when he learned to read, was in the realm of fantasy. According to interviews the wonderful aspect of fantasy was that in enabled the reader to totally inhabit the world that a writer creates.

“I'm not a science fiction writer,” he was frequently quoted as saying. “I've written only one book of science fiction [“Fahrenheit 451”]. All the others are fantasy. Fantasies are things that can't happen, and science fiction is about things that can happen.”

Though the stories in his books often occurred in far corners of the universe or in dystopian societies, ultimately, it was as much about the construct of the environment as the reactions of the characters which inhabited those worlds. More along the lines of a sociologist, Bradbury explored the character of man when placed in untenable situations.

Author of more than 27 novels and story collections and more than 600 short stories, he was a prolific writer until the end. A humanist and optimists, it was a strange juxtaposition that most of the characters in his stories descended to their baser natures when given a choice.

As seen in his collection of short stories titled “The Martian Chronicles,” and most famously, his classic novel "Fahrenheit 451,” one might get the sense by reading his books that Bradbury was a cynical misanthrope, but this couldn’t be farther from the truth.

Through his beautifully rendered universes, he provided his characters and readers with a choice, a fork in the proverbial road, whereby we could choose to elevate our thinking and thus our actions to benefit the whole, or descend into the tyranny that accompanies selfishness.

That is why so many of his stories though set in alien locations are ultimately fantastic extrapolations of post-war towns and cities everywhere in America. In a 2000, New York Times Magazine article, Bradbury said, “When I was born in 1920, the auto was only 20 years old. Radio didn't exist. TV didn't exist. I was born at just the right time to write about all of these things.”

And write he did. Bradbury is a titan in the American literary landscape and though he has passed, he shall live on though the words he loved so much.

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