A pivotal election in the year 2004 will determine more than the next president of the United States. Violent crime continues to be the number one political issue in America--and overwhelmingly, citizens give their support to a controversial new anticrime bill that guarantees capital punishment...at the cost of individual rights and due process.But one of the most influential businessmen in the world has a remarkable dream--and the ability to make it reality: a machine that can detect lies with one hundred percent accuracy. While such a device would leave no doubt about guilt in death-row cases, it also has broad implications for a world that is on a collision course with self-destruction.

When the Truth Machine does indeed become a reality, it changes the face of the world. And as its use spreads from courtroom to politics to diplomacy, business, science, education, and finally into every home throughout the world, it reshapes the very nature of humanity. But ultimately, the fate of the earth rests with mankind. Are we up to the challenge?

By turns optimistic and chilling--and always profound--THE TRUTH MACHINE is nothing less than a history of the future, a spellbinding chronicle of developments in technology and evolutions in social conscience that resonate with insight, wisdom...and astounding possibility.