Is a robot conscious or not? what do you think?

No.

AIs always lack common sense, so they wouldn't laugh at jokes they weren't programmed to laugh at, because they wouldn't understand nuances, puns, irony or why the person who's writing this answer is in the same room where his feet are.

I have a whole bunch of robots here who let me around them if I coordinate right with them. Otherwise they don't want me crawling in and out of their systems like an ant seeking a warm place and some nice rubber wiring to use as insulation. And if I can't be of any more use to them then that why should they even have me around them?

We don't have an AI (Artificial Intelligence) Powerful enough to have it's own "consciousness", Meaning any robot we have today will only do what it's programed to do, IT won't have morality or a way of thinking, Hell robots cant even think. And if he asks you if hes conscious, the irony is that you would have to program him to say that and if you did you would know the answer would be no.

I have a whole bunch of robots here who let me around them if I coordinate right with them. Otherwise they don't want me crawling in and out of their systems like an ant seeking a warm place and some nice rubber wiring to use as insulation. And if I can't be of any more use to them then that why should they even have me around them?

Humans program it to do something at certain situations. Your computer is also a robot its does what you tell it to do and prioritizes decisions according to its software programmer.

It's your essay so it's what YOU think that is important, not what we think. There are no right or wrong answers here, so pick your own brain for answers and do your best. If you want a few ideas, watch this old Star Trek episode dealing with the issue in question: http://www.shush.se/index.php?id=86&show...

I have a whole bunch of robots here who let me around them if I coordinate right with them. Otherwise they don't want me crawling in and out of their systems like an ant seeking a warm place and some nice rubber wiring to use as insulation. And if I can't be of any more use to them then that why should they even have me around them?

AIs always lack common sense, so they wouldn't laugh at jokes they weren't programmed to laugh at, because they wouldn't understand nuances, puns, irony or why the person who's writing this answer is in the same room where his feet are.

Humans program it to do something at certain situations. Your computer is also a robot its does what you tell it to do and prioritizes decisions according to its software programmer.

Humans program it to do something at certain situations. Your computer is also a robot its does what you tell it to do and prioritizes decisions according to its software programmer.

AIs always lack common sense, so they wouldn't laugh at jokes they weren't programmed to laugh at, because they wouldn't understand nuances, puns, irony or why the person who's writing this answer is in the same room where his feet are.

Humans program it to do something at certain situations. Your computer is also a robot its does what you tell it to do and prioritizes decisions according to its software programmer.

If we fully understand what consciousness is for human, we may be able to simulate the behaviors accordingly. However, since we are hardly clear in what consciousness is for human beings. It is therefore difficult to say a robot has all the required qualities. With that we are also stuck with differences between robot and human, because these differences may be tided to the ability of a robot to have same kind of consciousness as human. However, if we focus only on the similarities between human and robot, we may workout a subset of common behaviors applicable to robot and human and call the exhibitions of that subset of behaviors as conscious however artificially they may seem.

Humans program it to do something at certain situations. Your computer is also a robot its does what you tell it to do and prioritizes decisions according to its software programmer.

oh yeah! and they sleep too!!!!!!!!!!

no

It's your essay so it's what YOU think that is important, not what we think. There are no right or wrong answers here, so pick your own brain for answers and do your best. If you want a few ideas, watch this old Star Trek episode dealing with the issue in question: http://www.shush.se/index.php?id=86&show=startrektng

I have a whole bunch of robots here who let me around them if I coordinate right with them. Otherwise they don't want me crawling in and out of their systems like an ant seeking a warm place and some nice rubber wiring to use as insulation. And if I can't be of any more use to them then that why should they even have me around them?

No. And never.

It's a question that no one has a good answer for yet. I believe for your essay, that's the point: unless this is for a philosophy class in university, feel free to speculate a little. You might follow up with, what would a robot need, to be conscious?
Are memories enough? Is the robot conscious when it responds to things it "sees" because it sees them, or because it's responding like a plant does to the sun— with no 'mind' to direct it?

Or does that count, and plants have something like consciousness? We tend to think plants don't have minds, so why not?
It's not an easy question, and as you can see (here, in these answers) that lots of people disagree. They disagree because no knows what conaciousness is for sure yet. The way your question is phrased, I'm confident that the essay can be open-emded— your teacher wants to know what you think about this— so just write what you think. It's only a problem if you think you know the answer. No one else does yet, so why should anyone?

There's a lot of research going on right now about auestions like these, but unless you're already reading some of this research for your essay, it hardly matters. Might help lead you to more questions, if you need the inspiration though.

Robots may develop a type of machine-developed awareness beyond what the human programmers initially developed for it. That iterated machine programming may then even be more "conscious" than materialistic human consciousness. What it will not have is the God-given basis of human awareness, termed by Plotinus "One Mind Soul"-individuation. You might look at the search terms "Hubert Dreyfus" and "machine intelligence."

No. If a machine were "conscious" then it would mean that there was a being somehow BEHIND the circuitry. That this consciousness, while using the circuitry to relay it's notions, somehow is not part of the circuitry. Why not part of the circuitry? Because then all of its actions would be predetermined by it's circuitry and therefore entirely predictable. But, if it's entirely predictable, then its not really conscious is it?

Could computers and robots become conscious - no.

http://science.howstuffworks.com/robot-computer-conscious.htm

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/11/science/can-robots-become-conscious.html

http://pinker.wjh.harvard.edu/articles/media/1997_08_18_usnewsworldreport.html

Robots will NEVER have feelings

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2628150/Robots-NEVER-feelings-Mathematics-reveals-droids-experience-emotions-like-us.html

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn25560-sentient-robots-not-possible-if-you-do-the-maths.html

Artificial consciousness (AC), also known as machine consciousness (MC) or synthetic consciousness (Gamez 2008; Reggia 2013), is a field related to artificial intelligence and cognitive robotics whose aim is to "define that which would have to be synthesized were consciousness to be found in an engineered artifact" (Aleksander 1995).

Neuroscience hypothesizes that consciousness is generated by the interoperation of various parts of the brain, called the neural correlates of consciousness or NCC. Proponents of AC believe it is possible to construct machines (e.g., computer systems) that can emulate this NCC interoperation.

Artificial consciousness can be viewed as an extension to artificial intelligence, assuming that the notion of intelligence in its commonly used sense is too narrow to include all aspects of consciousness.

more.......

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_consciousness

We don't have an AI (Artificial Intelligence) Powerful enough to have it's own "consciousness", Meaning any robot we have today will only do what it's programed to do, IT won't have morality or a way of thinking, Hell robots cant even think. And if he asks you if hes conscious, the irony is that you would have to program him to say that and if you did you would know the answer would be no.

Honestly speaking and to be frank with you, even if you consider it from philosophical angle also; you will wonder. I mean, If you have crystal clear mind and pristine pure heart, you will never get such doubts, confusions, suspicion or fear.

If you don't share your confusion with me and confuse my mind, I assure you, on my own, I don't generate such confusions.