Machine Minds

Editor:

I regularly enjoy Barry Evans' Field Notes. His column in the August 4th Journal entitled "The Turing Test," however, only describes the initial step.  I recently published my second novel, Project Divine Wind, which features the Turing Test in several perspectives, including from the machine's point of view.  In the novel the main character, Attorney Jed LeBaron, goes further by taking the issue to the federal courts for a determination of whether a self-aware machine, a synthesis of genetic engineering and computer science, is entitled to the basic civil rights of a human being.  That question is fast approaching in real life.

Richard Platz, Blue Lake