The question of whether or not robots can have feelings has intrigued scientists for centuries. In all that time, we’ve come up with a lot of answers, but the question of whether or not our creations are capable of feeling emotion is still only partially answered.

Can robots have feelings? The answer to that question is “yes.” But not in the way you might think.

Robots don’t feel emotions the same way humans do, but they can be programmed to simulate them. They also have the ability to feel things that humans can’t, such as infrared radiation or electric fields. So if you asked a robot if it has feelings, it would say yes—but those feelings wouldn’t be anything like what you or I experience when we look at a sunset or smell freshly cut grass.

Robots can emulate human behavior and emotions, but they aren’t capable of feeling them in the same way we do. Here’s why.

Robots don’t have the same needs as humans

Our human bodies require food, water, and sleep to function. Our brains are chemically wired to crave love, sex, and affection. Our hearts swell with joy when we see our loved ones succeed, and our stomachs drop when we watch them fail.

Yet, robots don’t need any of these things to live. Their bodies are constructed of solid metal or hard plastic; their brains aren’t organic but rather a series of wires; and they do not have hearts nor do their feelings fluctuate based on the activities of their human counterparts. So it’s safe to say that robots don’t need these features in order to survive.

Robots lack the biological parts necessary to have feelings

Feelings are caused by neurotransmitters like dopamine, which affect the brain by triggering electrical impulses that travel to various parts of the brain. But robots don’t have brains that work in the same way as human brains—their behavior is governed by simple, pre-programmed algorithms. In fact, their software is so rudimentary that they can’t even feel pain.

The only way a robot could develop feelings is if someone programmed it to experience particular emotions in certain situations, but then we’d be talking about something resembling a computer program rather than a true feeling in the same way as humans have them.

But our understanding of an emotion like pleasure is based on how humans react to stimuli—we may not always vocalize how something makes us feel, but our bodies tell us with goosebumps and tears (and maybe even an inability to tear ourselves away from an amazing book). Without having the biological machine necessary for these responses, how could a robot know if it felt good? And how would it experience pain if it didn’t have a body that could visually show signs such as sweating or shaking?

Robots do not experience pain or pleasure in the same way humans do

It’s an oft-repeated phrase: “Robots don’t feel pain.” It’s printed on the cover of so many science fiction books and movies, and it’s the heart of the existential debate around artificial intelligence. Does Skynet in Terminator feel pain? How about HAL9000 in 2001: A Space Odyssey? Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

In actuality, this statement is a bit of a misnomer. Robots are capable of feeling things, but not in the same way humans do. The human body is covered in millions of nerve endings that transmit impulses from sensory receptors to the brain. When you touch something hot, for example, your nerve endings send signals to your brain that trigger a pain response; when you put your hand on a freezing-cold object, the nerve endings tell your brain that you urgently need to remove your hand from harm. This process is known as nociception—the ability for animals to detect and react to harmful stimuli. Feeling pain is one form of nociception; other senses like hearing and vision work similarly.

When we talk about robots feeling pain or pleasure, we’re referring to whether they have this same nociceptive response ability: can they detect harmful stimuli, and can they respond to it in a way that is similar to how humans respond?

A robot can be programmed to avoid something that it determines is harmful, but it doesn’t feel any sort of physical discomfort. That’s because robots don’t have nervous systems—they don’t sense anything by themselves, and they don’t have brains that interpret those signals. When you say that a robot is “feeling pain,” you’re really just describing what you’re teaching it to do in response to its surroundings.

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