Reviews

YA‘Although it has been 30 years since Stanley Kubrick brought Arthur Clarke's 2001 to the screen, the many ethical as well as scientific questions that the film raised still create a stir. For this title, Stork asked some of our leading scientists to explain the developments in the area of artificial intelligence and to look again at HAL given today's technology. The result is this collection of original essays that span such topics as "Could we build HAL?" "How could HAL see?" and "When HAL kills, who's to blame?" and differentiate between those aspects of the famous computer's capabilities that are fact and those that will most likely always remain science fiction. Although the general focus of the book is the movie, it goes on to provide a balanced survey of the subject of artificial intelligence. Despite the scientific slant of these writings, they are amazingly readable. Appropriate supplemental reading for a variety of subject areas and equally enjoyable for science-fiction fans and film buffs.‘Martha Ray, Kings Park Library, Fairfax County, VA

In the 30 years since Stanley Kubrick's classic 2001: A Space Odyssey first appeared, millions who have seen the film have fully anticipated the imminent reality not only of the routine space travel it depicts but of its most famous character: the polite, officious, and ultimately murderous super-computer, HAL. Yet as this illuminating work points out, it is probably overly optimistic to expect true thinking machines by the year 2001. Eleven leading researchers in artificial intelligence (e.g., Marvin Minsky, MIT, and Daniel Lenat, Cycorp) discuss the question, Could HAL be built today? The 15 chapters cover the impressive advances made in speech synthesis, computer vision, and especially processing speed. But despite the success of chess-playing computers, the book's bottom line is that we haven't progressed toward a truly intelligent machine. An engrossing report from the scientific frontier; highly recommended.‘Ben O'Sickey, "Library Journal"