Silicon dreams

Artificial intelligence - robots, androids, and the like - are among the most intriguing denizens of the science fiction universe. The various forms of intelligence that may soon be created by humankind, and the impact that they may have on our future civilization, offer extremely fertile ground for science fiction writers. Now such trailblazers in the field as Julie Czerneda, Jane Lindskold, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Gary Braunbeck, Jody Lynn Nye, and James P. Hogan introduce us to some of those next possible leaps in the development of intelligent life, some of them in startlingly unexpected forms. Here are triumphs and tragedies, cautionary tales as well as visionary ones: Could the last android in existence be preserved from terrorists able to strike at any time and place without warning? An intelligence that began life in an old man's left foot soon learned the most important truth of a created being's existence - enhancement was everything. . .