there 's an old question in artificial intelligence about whether a program can ever be aware of itself . `` here , '' rusty says as he pushes two huge bags at me . more than just ready , he corrected , they were all eager for the gathering . are you going to take away my allowance next and ground me for a month ? i finally got a hold of myself a bit and that same afternoon i dropped an envelope on her desk with the five hundred dollars . 