Richard remembered the lecture that Sarah had mentioned. It hadn't been a very good talk. He was rather tired and stressed at the time. He wondered at how he could have missed the beautiful young woman in the crowd of onlookers, though.<br/><br/>"You should never, ever think of yourself as just a tech", replied Richard in response to her statement regarding her paper, "The eggheads that form part of the scientific community could do with a lot less arrogance and a lot more open mindedness in my opinion. Spending hours pouring over research material and running simulations is all well and good, but nothing beats getting your hands dirty, yes?"<br/><br/>In response to her comment on his two year old paper, Richard shrugged. "There is still a lot of work to be done in that area. Personally I think that we're approaching the whole concept of Artificial Intelligence in the wrong way. They should be looking more at the humand mind as a model for the silicone one. What makes us learn? Not mere curiosity, not hard study and logical though processes. Its how we<b>feel</b>about things that cause our brains to make connections. Emotion is the key to intelligence and a machine without emotion - without self-awareness - will never achieve anything near the level of human intellect."<br/><br/>He suddenly laughed. "Oh god, listen to me. I'm the one that's ranting now. You know I think part of the unwritten job description of an engineer is spend your whole life getting excited about theories and none of it actually living. Perhaps we tech types should try to lighten up once in a while."<br/><br/>He stared at her drink.<br/><br/>"Like that for instance. Would you prefer something a little stronger? If I order it and say its for me then its perfectly legal, right?"