Seeing isn't Believing

It seems my speech yesterday has been universally applauded. Many people who had been unable to attend at the time have since come up and expressed their regrets at missing what they've heard to be "a very energised vision of future personal enhancement".
I have to admit to feeling quite encouraged by all the praise. This is a topic I shall have to write more about in the future.

One of the afternoon speakers brought onto the stage a number of small scuttling robots. The subject of his talk was automation of household tasks - cleaning carpets, washing sinks, mowing the grass etc. While the subject matter was interesting enough, the distraction of having a number of little crawling machines falling over each other was pure grandstanding. They were not prototypes of any kind, just 'examples of the size and manor of future household robots'. While they generated a good deal of 'ooh's and 'arhs' from the ladies in the audience, I felt they added nothing of value to the presentation, and such showmanship has no place in a serious conference.