: Re: Characterizing a sentient robot: sensory data I have a sentient robot in my novel. Truth to be told, I have many. Sentience is somewhat cheap to achieve, meaning that there are multiple artificial

@Odierno164

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I suggest this long answer of mine (90 votes) on a similar topic; it will define some of the terms you are using.

A "sentient" or self-aware being (machine or biological) will have an internal model of itself in the world, and be able to model (or simulate) with relative success how its own actions will cause changes in the world.

Most sentient beings would realize that using RGB codes with a human is pointless, their internal model of humans (necessary for them to work properly) will know that humans don't distinguish colors, weights, distances, etc with any precision. So it is not realistic for them to use these when talking with humans.

Edit: I should point out; "self-awareness" does not imply "emotional". We have self-aware robots already; self-driving cars and other robots that navigate a natural environment, or that need to be careful not to bump into or hit people or things. It only implies an ability to represent itself as the one object it can control in an environment of other (fixed or moving) objects it cannot: It is aware of itself.

Also, as a professional artist once informed me, nothing is ever one color. Even on a clear summer day, the sky is not "blue", it is fifteen shades of blue, and my shirt is not red, it is at least five shades of red depending on lighting, shadows, folds and wrinkles. So even the robot would know that the yellow dress is NOT #EEFEEF , but is a whole spectrum of colors, and predominately or on average what a human would term "yellow." In order to be effective, that would be built into its AI, it wouldn't constantly say things the humans cannot understand and be confused by their confusion.

That said, robot to robot, they might be precise and say "walk five thousand, nine hundred and eighty three feet."

Also, if a human requests it, they might report the exact value of their sensors, for sound-level, air pressure, temperature, humidity, distance (or distance walked), weight, altitude, compass direction, etc. Just like I might check my GPS coordinates on my iPhone.

Personally I think this kind of commentary would be tiring for the reader. It might be fun a few times for a curious human to ask this sort of thing, I can only imagine a 2-3 year old's endless "why" questions posed to an encyclopedic and willing care-giver robot. Of course the robot is not an endless fount, either, eventually like a human it would have to admit it doesn't know how it knows something, or would have to cite a resource it believes is true. But the chain would be longer, and it might be entertaining if you pick the right starting question.

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