LOOKING FOR ANSWERS? ASK THE RIGHT QUESTIONS!

The Artificial Intelligence teams are beaming with recent successes. Their IBM Watson computer beat the best the human race could throw up against it in a nationally televised "Jeopardy." At the same time, the sprawling build-a-brain Blue Brain Project in Switzerland is well underway. What does it all mean to Franklin Simms, third VIP to the left at Rush Street's newest place-to-be...? And to Luis Adams, the parking valet...?

I had to ask.

Franklin could be the prototypical alpha male. Working on LaSalle Street as a stock broker, he's 38, smart, lean, and rich. Drives the right car, owns the right technology, attends the right power seminars. I'm pretty sure he knows the answers to all his clients' questions, although I'm not altogether sure he could answer Luis' questions.

Luis is a little older than Franklin, a little heavier, and a lot poorer. But I've always enjoyed Luis more than Franklin. I'm not sure why. Could be that Thoreauvian taste for the simple, because Luis is a simple man. In the best philosophical sense of being un-complex and un-pretentious. In the few times I've been here, he's never asked Franklin any questions. But if he did I have a hunch they might be: "Why don't you ever look me in the eyes when you toss me your car keys? Or the person your with?"

I've watched Franklin a few times. Luis' questions would be valid ones. Like any famished alpha male on the hunt, Franklin exudes this intense Western exceptionalism which says: People are not so much people as rungs on a tall ladder I'm climbing. Clients like me are perfectly fine to be with; Luis, well lets be honest, he's never going to be investing any money with Franklin. In a highly-sophisticated, technology-driven culture, people are a lot like investments. Those who promise a return are worth my time. Those who don't, well they park cars.

I don't know either man very well, so the right to judge is off-limits. But to guess, well why not? If so, I guess Luis smiles more during his dreams than Franklin. No Watson or Blue Brain to verify that guess, but the guess comes from watching a man who always smiles and looks me in the eyes.