The Forever Machine - Clifton & Riley

This book has a couple of stacked premises that drive it. The first one has to do with an unusual boy who is telepathic. He's very frightened that anyone outside of his family will learn of it because he doesn't want to be different.
When this boy becomes a college student he gets roped into a government project led by a professor who has guessed his secret. The project is to design a machine that can make judgments like a human does. The professor urges the boy to 'push' the various designers so that they can make the best machine possible. Apparently telepathy somehow gives him perfect judgment and the ability to see the future although that is never really explained.
When the machine is finished (and I'm going to go ahead and give the spoilers away because I really can't recommend that anyone read this) it can somehow help a person in such a way that they become young and telepathic. This is done by systematically resolving any and all contradictions in their thoughts/actions/etc. The hitch is that only people that have little certainty in their life can let go of these tangled things and give in to the process.
Not a good book at all. Long sections of it have to do with absurd public reaction, all told with a sneer. The characters are all cardboard. The 'science' takes wild leaps that defy logic and common sense. It's clear that the authors felt strongly about...something, but it's hard to tell what. Certainly not the worst book I've read lately (ahem) but, man it wasn't good.