After four novels and several years living abroad the fictional protagonist of<strong>Galatea 2.2</strong>Richard Powersreturns to the United States as Humanist... » 

After four novels and several years living abroad the fictional protagonist ofGalatea 2.2Richard Powersreturns to the United States as HumanistinResidence at the enormous Center for the Study of Advanced Sciences. There heruns afoul of Philip Lentz an outspoken cognitive neurologist intent uponmodeling the human brain by means of computerbased neural networks. Lentzinvolves Powers in an outlandish and irresistible project to train a neuralnet on a canonical list of Great Books. Through repeated tutorials the devicegrows gradually more worldly until it demands to know its own name sex raceand reason for exisiting. «