Although technology seems to be everywhere, we continue to fill in the voids. Existing technologies evolve and change at a higher pace every year, making it challenging for some professionals to adjust.We have reached a point where some are having difficulty coping with game-changing technologies that are presumably contributing to progress. Such progress can be difficult to perceive if you are not directly benefiting from it. In my previous article, I discussed the ability of social robotics to make a positive impact on our society. This article provides an optimistic vision of the opportunity for this technology to include the general public in its development.

Over the years, society has become more dependent on digital technologies. Today, nearly every person, business, and government agency uses the internet to transmit and store data. As a result of that dependence, there is no shortage of hackers who try to access that data. We see this at every level. Celebrities have had their phones hacked and their personal photographs stolen and dispersed online.

Self-driving cars without steering wheels or pedals might have gotten a little bit closer to reality late last week. On Friday, the California Department of Motor Vehicles released a revised draft of regulations that could give more flexibility to autonomous car manufacturers than they have today. The proposed regulations allow testing driverless cars that pass a federal safety inspection, even with no driver in the car. At the moment, states with self-driving car regulation normally require the presence of drivers. In California, 15 companies have permits to test vehicles as long as there is a licensed driver along for the ride, according to Reuters.

Big Data: A Startup Thriller Novel by Lucas Carlson My rating: 5 of 5 stars Big Data: A Startup Thriller Novel is a new ingenious creation by Lucas Carlson, a fiction and non-fiction author and entrepreneur, who already got my attention and won me over with his first thrilling startup novel The Term Sheet. Big Data is a maddening ride through our near future where artificial intelligence is incorporated in our lives to the point that people rely on its services more than on their natural instincts, reasoning and decision making. It serves us, it helps us, it cures us, and then it kills us... This is exactly what happens when Luna Valencia's most-advanced supercomputer Ancien in history starts to refine and improve on its own code which can "solve many problems in the world of artificial intelligence without human assistance, interpretation, or intervention." It is the holy grail in the world of computers, but it is also the weapon for mass murder in the world of humans.

In recent months, several prominent champions of technology -- Bill Gates, Stephen Hawking, and Tesla founder Elon Musk among them -- have declared that the greatest threat to humankind is not climate change, nuclear warfare, religious fanaticism or bacterial superbugs. No, according to these famous forward-thinkers, the threat we should really be worried about is advanced artificial intelligence. That is, we should be worried about supersmart robots and computers guided by a globally networked über-entity that will one day be able to outlearn, outthink and outcompete the human species and send it hurtling toward extinction. Late last year, Hawking, a physicist, came right out and told the BBC: "The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race." In a recent symposium at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Tesla's Musk said that creating advanced artificial intelligence was "summoning the demon."

A truck struck the center divider of the 101 Freeway in Hollywood early Monday morning, sending debris into lanes and briefly causing a full freeway closure. The crash was reported at about 3:08 a.m. on the northbound freeway, south of Cahuenga Boulevard, said California Highway Patrol Officer Elizabeth Kravig. There were no reported injuries, she said. Northbound and southbound lanes were closed, but the southbound lanes, shut down by debris on the roadway, reopened around 4:26 a.m. Northbound lanes remained closed as of 5:45 a.m. as a tow truck tried to upright the truck, which is possibly a taco truck, Kravig said.

Indian and Pakistani troops fired at each other in disputed Kashmir on Monday, as Indian troops searched an army camp elsewhere in the region where suspected militants killed an Indian paramilitary soldier. Indian army Lt. Col. Manish Mehta said Pakistani troops fired without provocation using small arms and mortar shells in the Poonch sector of the Line of Control separating the Indian- and Pakistani-controlled parts of Kashmir. Pakistan's army said in a statement that its troops were responding to unprovoked firing by Indian soldiers. Both sides said the exchange of fire was continuing. In Islamabad, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif met with the leaders of all Pakistani political parties to discuss the ongoing clashes.

A new robot for lonely people made by Toyota Motor Corp. can do little other than chatter in a high-pitched voice. The 39,800, 10-cm-tall, doll-like Kirobo Mini -- whose name comes from kibo (hope) and robot -- supposedly has the smarts of a 5-year-old. Its value, according to general manager in charge of the project Fuminori Kataoka, is chiefly emotional. It comes equipped with a camera, microphone and Bluetooth, and connects to smartphones installed with a certain app. Ideally, it will turn its head toward the speaker, though that function sometimes fails because its voice recognition ability is far from perfect.

This article was published in partnership with The Marshall Project, a nonprofit news organization covering the US criminal justice system. Sign up for their newsletter, or follow The Marshall Project on Facebook, or Twitter. If African-American motorists--or drivers of any color--deplore being pulled over for a broken taillight only to be socked with more serious charges, they can take heart that the practice should disappear within the next 20 years. Not that racial harmony will be achieved or that a new polymer will make taillights indestructible. Rather, it's that human beings won't be doing the driving.