Do robots have feelings?

[John Gutmann]

Originally Posted by Mike

Ahh, now we are getting somewhere. I can't answer this with a little snippet of code. But rather this leads into another question. Are humans very complex programs? I say that we are programmed, but programmed to be learning creatures. If you were to place a baby in this situation, it would not know how to get the candy on the top shelf. However, place that same baby (now more of a toddler) in the room a few years later and I believe it would now know how to get that candy.

So, if I program a robot to learn, is it living? Programming a robot to learn is no easy task, to say the least. One (very very very inefficient idea) that I have is to approach it with a brute force attack, of sorts. Try every possible combination of using the chair until you find the one that works, then log that technique for use later.

Being able to learn is one trait that makes something living. aside with being able to learn is being able to adapt to your evironment. Just because a robot doesn't take the easiest root doesn't make it not living. If it takes the smart(intelligent) path it doesn't make it living either. I know many stupid people. Many many stupid people. But that doesn't mean they aren't alive. Something that you can can say defines living things is the ability to adapt, as I stated earlier.

For example Animals adapt to cold by growing fur(multiple layers). They adapt by living in packs. they adapt to water by growing fins and the shapes of their bodies.

-Plants adapt by growing towards the sun.

But everything in a way is kinda pre-programmed to an extent.

For example:
One of the biggest ones I can think of right now is Fibonacci's sequece.
The mating of rabbits. you start wth one rabbit then you add another(male + female)and the pattern is 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, 233......

the same can be said about the squirly seashells, pine cone tines, branches on a bush, everywhere you look.
Is that squence of #'s programed into everything or is it just a coincidence?

But I am sure you were talking about how a robot acts. I would say one important point is that living things can physically change is almost any way that is predictable to some extent. To be able to have a living robot in pure programming I think is impossible Just the simple logic of a robot to beable to learn is complex not to even start to think about how to program a memory like our that is photographic and our brains store everything we expirience(it is just a matter of if we can remember it).

In my honest opinion man kind can never and will never create a "living robot" because the create somethign to the extent is like an infinite project, even now we are learning more about living things.