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Section I (pages 0-30)

• Richard Powers returns to the U.S., to an appointment at the Center for the Study of Advanced Sciences, after living with his lover C. in the Netherlands.

• As he settles into his new location, Richard meets Philip Lentz, who is working on a machine that he is training to recognize beauty.

• Richard alternates scenes of getting involved in Lentz's circle of researchers, and reminiscing about his ex-lover C.

Section II (pages 31-64

• Richard and C. were together for 10 years while Richard established himself as an author.

• Richard finds Lentz coarse and insulting to the other researchers, but Richard is nevertheless drawn into his project of training a machine to be conscious.

• Lentz intends to train the machine to take the Turing Test in ten months, and hopes that it can do as well as a college student.

Section III (pages 64-90)

• Richard reminisces...

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