Here’s something that engineers designing the next generation of
unmanned combat air vehicles may not have considered: A well-placed lightning strike could rewire the plane’s artificially intelligent (AI) brain, transforming the craft into an enemy of the state bent on destroying a major city. Absurd? Maybe. Good plot for a thriller? Evidently: It’s the source of the action in the new movie Stealth, in which an AI-controlled fighter jet turns evil.

To the dismay of the many scientists whose work and words are blatantly distorted within its pages, Michael Crichton´s new book, State of Fear, was still hanging around best-seller lists months after its debut. It even came up in debates on the Senate floor. Science has always taken center stage in Crichton´s thrillers—The Andromeda Strain, Jurassic Park, Prey—but recently he seems to be taking himself, and his ideas, a bit more seriously.