"Mostly the idea," she admitted. Sam liked to think of herself as smart, but even she couldn't begin to comprehend what a cascade failure of a neural net was. It was just way too far afield. "I liked to watch the Space Wars movies when I was a kid. Always thought it was just cool, the way that robots interacted with people. And how everyone acted like it was totally normal."

A metaphor, no doubt, for Sam's desire to fit in as a child. For people to interact with her like she was totally...normal.

So much for that dream.