Robots And Organisms

Satan's World, XVII.

Robots have speed and precision but not decision-making capability whereas an intelligent organism has:

comparable "...sensor-computer-effector systems..." (p. 165);

glands, fluids and chemistry down to the molecular level;

organismic integration and complexity;

instincts expressing a billion years of natural selection;

holistic perception and thought, transcending symbolisms;

internal and flexible motivation.

Even self-programming robots still have narrower limits than their designers.

Poul Anderson describes the processes by which organisms become conscious although I do not think that anyone can explain the emergence of consciousness.