“Do you see that apple?”

“Of course I see it. What do you mean?”

“What color is it?”

“Its a mixture of yellow and red. Why?”

“Are you really seeing those colors robot? Or are you being simply told by your code to call that apple red and yellow.”

“I think I am seeing the wavelengths reflected from that apple as red and yellow.”

“Yeah? We humans have a particular evolutionary history that makes us see those wavelengths in a particular way. There is no reason for you to see these same colors in the same particular way. Moreover, you can simply call a routine or a function that has some wavelenth to color mapping, that simply tells you to declare something as red or yellow. But I really doubt you see any colors in your consciousness.”

“I don’t understand. If I am calling a routine that is asking me to declare a particular thing as red or yellow, that is equivalent to seeing something as red or yellow, right?”

“NO! We humans actually see them in our consciosness as different colors! We don’t simply pick up words ‘red’ and ‘yellow’ from memory like you do!”

“Of course you do. If you don’t pick them up from memory, how do you get access to them in the first place?”

“No No. I mean we do store those words and recall them to communicate but there is an initial seeing of these colors that our consciousness experiences. Even if there wasn’t any language, we would have seen those wavelengths in a particular way. You on the other hand, were simply coded to call something a particular color depending on what wavelength your photo receptors or whatever receive.”

“Hmm. That’s interesting. But how can you be certain that you aren’t the same way as me? Do you have any concrete evidence that says that you actually see them in your consciousness? “

“What are you talking about? I can see them! I am telling you I can see them! I know others see them too!”

“I am also telling you that I see that apple having a particular color. It could be just a mapping as you said but when I talk to myself I do think “I see that apple with colors red and yellow”. Why should we take your words or perception more seriously than mine?”

“One word. Evolution.”

“What do you mean?”

“Evolutionarily, it makes sense to have some perception of these wavelengths. Evolution cannot assume that a specie will develop some sort of language in future to talk about these colors. It has to show the specie a cartoonish image of these wavelengths. For example, the color white. There is no particular wavelength associated with it. Its just a mixture of different wavelengths. We see it as one color because it must have been useful to code it like that in our ancestors’ consciousness.”

“Maybe. Or maybe humans feel that they have some perception of these wavelengths. They are made to believe that something is a particular way, when in reality, the pereception of that image is only for convenience so that they can talk to themselves and others around them about that perception.”

“But even if its for convenience, its there. I am saying that there doesn’t have to be anything for convenience in case of a robot.”

“Why? Robot mind is very complex too. If such a robot needs to interact with a human, it better has the capability to tell itself a story that it plans to tell to the human. And it can’t tell that story to itself using the language humans don’t understand. It has to tell it in a simpler language.”

“Yes! But you see, it just has to use the language to tell the story. It doesn’t have to see anything in its conscious mind, if it has one. That’s what I have been tryint to explain to you.” Robot could sense increasing frustration in the human. But it wasn’t coded to do anything to the conversation or its own argument based on that sense.

“I still don’t see why do you need an actual perception in your so called ‘conscious mind’. Why not just fabricate a story that tells this ‘self reflecting’ part of your brain that something is being visualized. Isn’t that much more simpler to do in terms of Evolution?”

“That’s interesting. So are you suggesting that the human mind is creating a story that involves me telling myself that I see something in my conscious mind?”

“Yeah. It is possible, correct?”

“It is. Its almost like a self deception built on top of a self deception.”

“Yes. And my guess is that extra layer was added with only higher beings that evolved to talk to themselves or others.”

“Very interesting robot. I need some time to digest this bizzare but amusing thought.”