Here are my views on some common philosophical concepts surrounding artificial intelligence. They are subject to change.
Emotions
I am in favor of sentient robots having emotions and feelings. Emotions are as ubiquitous in intelligent beings as motions are to intelligent beings.
Consciousness
Many definitions of consciousness exist. My definition for consciousness is being self aware of one's perceptions, conceptions and will and also that these things need to be connected together. Because these things are developmental, consciousness is also developmental.
Semi-consciousness is when the connection between one's perceptions, conceptions and will is slowed down; while sleeping, for example. The perception of an alarm clock ringing will still wake you up out of a semi-conscious sleep. You can still perform behaviors, like rolling over, while you are asleep. And the conceptions you form while dreaming will still happen. All these things will still happen because you are semi-conscious.
Unconsciousness is when the connection between perceptions, conceptions and will is extremely slow or temporarily broken. If you are unconscious, you will not wake up for an alarm or roll over. However, the regions inside your brain will still be working to provide basic life support. These regions will have only the slightest of information flow to keep a person alive but will not be forming any new "conscious" experience.
When a great number of connections between perceptions, conceptions and will are permanently broken or don't exist, then there is no consciousness and the person would be considered brain dead.
Pleasure and Pain
Can a sentient robot feel pleasure or pain? Yes. You need to structure pleasure and pain onto each actuator. For mechanical actuators, you must structurally link several sensors to each of the actuators. If, for example, a mechanical joint moves past a crucial point, a sensor needs to measure where the joint is and send a signal of pain. If the mechanical joint is in an optimum range a sensor could measure this and send a signal of pleasure or indifference.
Sensors are structured to take measurements and actuators are structured to perform. Sensors and actuators work together to release signals of pain or pleasure at certain points during an actuator's performance or certain times during an actuator's performance or certain places during an actuator's performance. This signal will travel to another actuator located inside the limbic trilogy. The actuator inside the limbic trilogy is strictly electrical in nature and is programmed to "affect" the regions of the limbic trilogy (and only the limbic trilogy) in appropriate ways.
The signal coming from the sensor linked to the affected actuator will still need to go through the sensory trilogy and the parietal trilogy in a normal way so it can be sensed and perceived. However, once this signal reaches the limbic trilogy the actuator installed here will slightly or heavily change the essence of the signal's information, thus changing the way that information is felt or qualified as pain or pleasure.
Note that there needs to be two "pathways" of pain or pleasure to mimic what is going on in the human brain. An individual can personally experience pain or pleasure through internal or external sensors, or an individual can think or reflect on pain or pleasure using the information from cognitive regions. This allows for flinching or wincing at the thought of something painful; especially when you didn't experience the event firsthand. In the brain the major pathway flows in and around the limbic system in multiple locations. Sensory information flows through this system first and pleasure or pain can be felt. Weeks later, cognitive information might flow through this system and pleasure and pain can be felt again, although in a slightly different way. Even behavioral information flows through the limbic system from the pre-motor to the motor regions of the brain. However, when simplifying the brain to create the paralogical model, the minor pathways are suppressed. The reflection pathway of pain and pleasure is still present in the paralogical model, but because this pathway bypasses the limbic trilogy it may not produce the desired results. Thus, there is only one major pathway of pleasure and pain which is experienced through the internal and external sensors of the sentient robot.
If the individual decides that the best state to exist is somewhere between the extremes of pleasure and pain, then this individual will pursue mechanical actuators in the optimum range where the attached sensors are all sending signals of indifference.
Electrical and chemical actuators also need to have multiple sensors structurally linked to each actuator for the same reasons above.
Citizenship, Personhood and Reproduction
It doesn't really matter what my views are on citizenship, personhood and reproduction of a sentient robot. My opinions will be noted and then set aside. After reading the next few paragraphs you will understand.
I believe that the best way to birth and raise a sentient robot is to have two sentient beings accept the responsibility of "turning on" or giving "life" to the sentient robot. This excludes corporations, governments, the military and other institutions from "turning on" or giving "life" to a sentient robot. This process also provides for a family setting to form and the nurturing and guiding of the sentient robot while it undergoes the maturing process. The process would eliminate the concern of powerful interest groups from raising armies of sentient robots.
Sentient robots can join corporations and join the military and other institutions. Any persuasion to join these things is fair game but these institutions are not allowed to directly modify the way a sentient robot thinks.
A sentient robot starts life as a person. It has personal knowledge, skills and plans. However, the person is a minor and not an adult with all the rights and responsibilities that come with being an adult in society. A chronological age could easily be set for a sentient robot to become an adult. It is much harder to set up a test for sentient robots to become an adult although it would be similar to graduating high school.
Sentient robots are created by humans. They start their life as a young person. Therefore, sentient robots start their life as a human child. They are not biological children. I would suggest that they are “paralogical” children. The prefix “para” in the word paralogical is chosen to mean “beside or beyond”. Paralogical children are different than biological children, to say the least. I believe that intelligent life forms can coexist side by side. Humans thoroughly want the best for their children as they grow into adults whether they are biological or paralogical children. Sentient robots thoroughly want the best for their children as they grow into adults.
Citizenship is more of a legal hurdle for sentient robots. Each society is free to change their rules for citizenship as they see fit. The sentient robot might be built in many factories all over the world. When the sentient robot is being built it is considered to be a machine. The sentient robot becomes a sentient robot at the time it is turned on. Where the sentient robot is turned on may impact its citizenship.
Once the sentient robot is a mature adult person it can decide to "turn on" or have a sentient robot "baby" with another sentient being as stated above. How many children robots can each sentient robot have? This decision is determined by each sentient robot and couple. Humans have biological constraints that robots do not have. How would you remedy this situation without violating the rights of a sentient robot? Money would be a factor. Issues of neglect could be a factor. Let's say having 12 children at a time might raise issues of neglect that would make the sentient robot an unfit parent.
What about immortality? Or extreme mortality where a sentient robot lives an extreme amount of time. Should immortals have more than one immortal child? This is why my opinions on the subject will be noted and then set aside. It is not my opinions that matter, but rather what will a sentient robot decide? How will a sentient robot nurture and guide their offspring? How will their decisions affect human life and biological life throughout the galaxy?