The Veldt Analysis

Throughout time new technologies have emerged to solve problems and make life more enjoyable. Along with the benefits and praise, new technology always comes with concerns and potential detriments. Ray Bradbury's “The Veldt” and the concept of self driving cars both pose questions about benefits and risks of new technology arising in the world. Many technologies that are presented in Ray Bradbury’s “The Veldt” have obvious benefits to everyday life. Machines in the house do many of the tedious tasks that one dreads on a daily basis. These machines replace the processes of taking hours to cook supper, caring for of young children, and much more: “Can I give a bath and scrub the children as efficiently or quickly as the automatic scrub bath
The transition itself to self driving cars could be costly and dangerous. Self driving cars would be very expensive, so not every person could afford to own one. The danger of the transition comes in when the self driving cars have to take into account the cars that are still operated by people: “‘autonomous drive vehicles are a wonderful idea, but the transition from driver-operated to driverless is likely to be filled with accidents.’ For instance, while approaching a traffic light, a self-driving car calculates that if it speeds up a little bit, it will be able to pass through the light, but the driver in the car in front decides to stop because he thinks he won’t make it on time. What do you think the result will be?” (Ramirez). The most controversial part of self driving cars however, is how the computer inside the car will decide whose life is more important in the case of an inevitable accident. “the cars will be designed to avoid accidents, but ‘If it happens where there is a situation where a car couldn’t escape, it’ll go for the smaller thing.’ But what if the smaller thing is a child?” (Spangler). It is very difficult to determine whose life is more important, and even more difficult to program a car to