# Star Wars: Are the robots sentient? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 6, 2018, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-wars-are-the-robots-sentient/815509 "2018-06-06T01:15:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2018, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-wars-are-the-robots-sentient/815509/61 "2018-06-07T12:36:20Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > So we were rooting for kissin’-your-sister rebels who owned slaves, and against the government that hired those _don’t-serve-their-kind-here_ types to fight? The Empire also has slaves, so it’s a wash IMO. Bounty hunters don’t count to differentiate, they’d work for the Rebels just as easily. Now, if either side paid their _non_-freelancing droids a living wage, that’d make it easier to tell who the good guys were… ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2018, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-wars-are-the-robots-sentient/815509/62 "2018-06-07T14:21:41Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > So we were rooting for kissin’-your-sister rebels who owned slaves, and against the government that hired those _don’t-serve-their-kind-here_ types to fight? The Rebel Alliance was fightin’ for Systems’ Rights, and against the Empire’s unjust tariff policies! And droids are _happy_ servin’ their masters, everyone knows that! Why, poor C3PO would be heartbroken if some outside agitator from some big-city planet like Coruscant tried to take him away from his beloved Master Luke! ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2018, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-wars-are-the-robots-sentient/815509/63 "2018-06-07T14:38:10Z")
Previous generations grappled with these issues while watching the animals pressed into service as household appliances on the Flintstones. Perhaps the droids resign themselves to thinking, “it’s a living.” ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2018, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-wars-are-the-robots-sentient/815509/64 "2018-06-07T14:44:21Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > I’m just saying, if they’d cast Luke and Han with the folks who played Bo and Luke, and maybe thrown in a white-bearded mentor played by Denver Pyle… And Catherine Bach in a gold bikini as “Cousin” Leia? ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2018, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-wars-are-the-robots-sentient/815509/65 "2018-06-07T15:01:08Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > And Catherine Bach in a gold bikini as “Cousin” Leia? I could have tried to photoshop something like [this](http://www.bitrebels.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/lee1.jpg), but I just assumed that it already existed on the internet and wasn’t disappointed. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2018, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-wars-are-the-robots-sentient/815509/66 "2018-06-07T16:14:04Z")
> [@Aquadementia](#): > > I’d say no. > Qui-Gon wasn’t immediately convince Jar-Jar was sentient. Yeah, it was Jar-Jar but it might apply to all his people. He never said that. Jar-Jar is unquestionably SENTIENT. All animals are sentient. ---
**Author:** ![ekedolphin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ekedolphin/32/10003_2.png) [@ekedolphin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ekedolphin)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2018, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-wars-are-the-robots-sentient/815509/67 "2018-06-08T01:39:54Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > Agreed. And, in the same vein: _“They’re dying, Artoo! Curse my metal body, I wasn’t fast enough! It’s all my fault!”_ That makes perfect sense if he actually believes it, and wants to lament to the other guy — but if neither of them cares, it’s just _weird_. May I throw in here that I thought that was the funniest line in that entire movie? ---
**Author:** ![Trisha\_Gaurav](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d07c76/32.png) [@Trisha\_Gaurav](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trisha_Gaurav)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2018, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-wars-are-the-robots-sentient/815509/68 "2018-06-08T03:46:51Z")
Wait, did you mean sentient as in intelligent? :smack: No, I don’t think they are. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2018, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-wars-are-the-robots-sentient/815509/69 "2018-06-08T04:07:04Z")
> [@Trisha\_Gaurav](#): > > Wait, did you mean sentient as in intelligent? :smack: > No, I don’t think they are. Roger Roger. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2018, 10:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-wars-are-the-robots-sentient/815509/70 "2018-06-08T10:14:51Z")
> [@Trisha\_Gaurav](#): > > Wait, did you mean sentient as in intelligent? Once more, with feeling: Sentience \*\*IS NOT \*\*Intelligence! The OP is clearly using it in the correct sense, too. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2018, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-wars-are-the-robots-sentient/815509/71 "2018-06-08T12:42:59Z")
Were they aware of their environments and able to react to stimuli in that environment? Unquestionably. But that’s also not a big deal. The OP is clearly referring to something else, but people are notoriously sloppy about defining just what that “something else” is. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2018, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-wars-are-the-robots-sentient/815509/72 "2018-06-08T13:20:40Z")
The OP was pretty clear that to them, sentience was synonymous with self awareness. Yes, we can dive down a rabbit hole of what “is” is, but the OP was not “sloppy” ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2018, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-wars-are-the-robots-sentient/815509/73 "2018-06-08T13:24:05Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Were they aware of their environments and able to react to stimuli in that environment? That’s also not sentience. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2018, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-wars-are-the-robots-sentient/815509/74 "2018-06-08T14:26:03Z")
OK, now define self-awareness. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2018, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-wars-are-the-robots-sentient/815509/75 "2018-06-08T14:49:48Z")
First, you define “define”. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2018, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-wars-are-the-robots-sentient/815509/76 "2018-06-08T15:08:23Z")
I feel this was settled, in passing, back on Page One: however you define sentience, or anything else, it’s the thing that I freely grant that you have while I’m having this chat with you. And, as far as I can tell, you’d do likewise for me; and, as far as I can tell, Threepio would do just fine compared to either of us in a Turing test. Whatever we’re doing to convince one another, it looks like he’s got it too. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2018, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-wars-are-the-robots-sentient/815509/77 "2018-06-08T16:24:57Z")
OK, if you put a discolored smudge on Threepio’s forehead, and showed him a mirror, would he attempt to wipe the smudge off? That’s the best test anyone’s ever been able to come up with for anything that might be called “self-awareness”, and I don’t think anyone doubts that Threepio would pass that test. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2018, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-wars-are-the-robots-sentient/815509/78 "2018-06-08T16:35:49Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > OK, if you put a discolored smudge on Threepio’s forehead, and showed him a mirror, would he attempt to wipe the smudge off? That’s the best test anyone’s ever been able to come up with for anything that might be called “self-awareness”, and I don’t think anyone doubts that Threepio would pass that test. I thought R2D2 handled maintenance. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2018, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-wars-are-the-robots-sentient/815509/79 "2018-06-08T16:40:02Z")
There’s a great short scene in the Rebels episode “Twin Suns” in which Ezra decides he needs to cross the open desert. Chopper doesn’t want to. Ezra tells him he can follow the hills (filled with Sand people) and probably find a town. Chopper looks at hills, back at Ezra, back at hills, back at Ezra, gives a great frustrated sigh, slumping over very human like before following Ezra. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2018, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-wars-are-the-robots-sentient/815509/80 "2018-06-08T17:00:11Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > OK, if you put a discolored smudge on Threepio’s forehead, and showed him a mirror, would he attempt to wipe the smudge off? That’s the best test anyone’s ever been able to come up with for anything that might be called “self-awareness”, and I don’t think anyone doubts that Threepio would pass that test. The mirror test is a bit flawed or inconclusive, though - I mean, \*gorillas \*maybe don’t pass, but pigeons and some _ants_ do…😕 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-wars-are-the-robots-sentient/815509.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-wars-are-the-robots-sentient/815509.md?page=5)