A question was asked involving self-awareness by robots. Here is a more basic question. We have machines that can determine colors by checking wavelengths, but they can’t tell red from blue the way we can. Since detecting colors does not require great intelligence, it is reasonable to suppose that other animals that perceive color do so in a way that is similar to the way that we do.

Will it ever be possible to program machines to see colors? How would we know? Is it just a matter of sufficient computing power, or is there some basic knowledge that we have not yet acquired? If we could accomplish this, would we be able to tell if blue looks the same to a robot as it does to us, or is this not a meaningful question?