Approaching The Bionic Age

Predicts the emergence of artificial intelligence. Overview of the book 'The Age of Spiritual Machines,' by Ray Kurzweil; Discussion on Kurzweil's theory; Information on the development of an electronic chip acting as a neural sensor of brain activities; Views on the creation of a machine with human-level intelligence. INSET: Notable.

By Oliver G. Selfridge, published on September 01, 1999

Sandra Levy Ceren, Ph.D., Prescription for Terror (Andrew Scott Publisher, 1999). A decent murder mystery with two cool twists: The sleuth, like the author, is a clinical psychologist and the villain is managed care.

Joanne Cantor, Ph.D., Mommy, I'm Scared: How TV and Movies Frighten Children and What We Can Do to Protect Them (Harcourt Brace, 1999). Another attempt at blaming the tube for violence in our society.

Paolo Inghilleri, Ph.D., From Subjective Experience to Cultural Change (Cambridge University Press, 1999). This renowned Italian scholar shows how psychological processes are driving cultural change throughout Europe.

Larry Lachman and Frank Mickadeit, Dogs on the Couch: Behavior Therapy for Training and Caring for Your Dog (Overlook Press, 1999). An up-to-date look at how to use positive reinforcement and other behavior modification techniques to keep Spot off the sofa.

Two New York

City-based comedy writers, Jonathan Bines and Gary Greenberg, think the American public is in dire need of a few more self-help books. Their collection, Self-Helpless: The Greatest Self-Help Books You'll Never Read (Career Press, 1999), offers up: "I'm O.J., You're O.J.: The Transgressional Analysis Breakthrough That Will Leave You Feeling 100% NOT GUILTY," "Ten Stupid Things Women Do to Mess Up Their Hair" and "When Bad Things Happen to Good Humor People: Inspirational stories from valiant ice cream vendors."

ILLUSTRATIONS (COLOR)

Adapted by Ph.D.

Oliver G. Selfridge is a computer scientist and senior lecturer at the Media Lab of MIT. He helped start the field of artificial intelligence in the early 1950s and has since been working on discovering a way for computers to learn for themselves.