Dreaming of Autonomous Vehicles Miloslav (Miles) J. Breuer: Czech-American Writer and the Birth of Science Fiction

Miles (Miloslav) J. Breuer (1889-1945) was the first author to have original fiction published in Hugo Gernsback's Amazing Stories in 1927, marking a milestone in the early history of science fiction. His life and fiction spanned working as an M.D., to moving around the United States, and writing SF that not only appeared in the pulp magazines of the day, but in countless Czech-American journals that documented a way of life unique to the era. His science fiction stories helped inspire a generation of authors. In 1924 he was one of the first writers to warn against the danger to humanity posed by the rise of modern technologies, in this specific case, by autonomous vehicles. His collaborative novel with Jack Williamson, The Birth of a New Republic, served as an inspiration for The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein, who saw it as "A very, very solid piece of work, one of my favorites, and miles ahead of the stuff ...