An overview of the debate over artificial intelligence.

"Dystopia or utopia: There may be a calamitous menace hidden behind the glorious possibilities of artificial intelligence. Science fiction has portrayed machines capable of thinking and acting for themselves with a mixture of anticipation and dread, but what was once the realm of fiction has now become the subject of serious debate for researchers and writers."

The Central Intelligence Agency reported that it was picking up growing
signs that countries such as Russia and China were developing tools to
attack commercial computer networks at the heart of U.S. might.

A new electronic circuit can mimic the activity of the brain and may one day
be used to create computers that think more like humans, scientists said.

Hackers have begun attacking Web sites connected to Afghanistan's Taliban rulers and to other Islamic nations including Iran, prompting the FBI to issue warnings to system administrators everywhere to tighten up their security.

A simple computerized test has been touted as being able to accurately identify trained terrorists before they can board planes or even enter the country and has proven infallible in FBI and U.S. Navy testing, according to Infoseek founder Steve Kirsch.

As U.S. airports begin installing face-recognition systems to thwart terrorism in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, civil rights activists are rushing to decry the technology as ineffective and invasive.

An extensive report on the recent surge in nanotechnology funding and interest from government, industry, and financial leaders.

Cyberspace will soon come under much greater legal control, according to one expert - who forecasts that denial of service attacks will eventually be ordered by courts of law against offenders.

An ambitious program called CubeSat, developed at Stanford University and California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, is giving students and companies the opportunity to build and launch functional satellites into low Earth orbit, or about 240 to 360 miles above the planet.