Intelligent Software Agents

According to the foreword by Arthur C. Clarke (2001: A Space Odyssey), the computer field veteran authors' analysis demonstrates that the future is sooner than we think in regard to the possibility of truly intelligent machines. They detail the technology, standards, Internet and other applications, key development players, and implications of the listed latest and next generation of intelligent, even personable software agents. Those insidious Web "cookies," however, seem more related to Clarke's HAL. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.