How do robots die?

Answer 1

Of course they can stop working. If you call that "die", that would imply that they somehow were "alive". So the real question is, "are robots alive"? I believe the answer, so far, is "no", and perhaps it will remain so for evermore.

On the other hand...

This is a very good question... because it gets to the heart of what it means to be human and what it means to be alive.

Do dogs die? Of course they do. They live, and then they die. So having a human soul and human intelligence is not required to be able to die. But what if we made it so that dogs never died? If dogs could have their spirit and intelligence and memories transferred to a new body, or stored until they got put into a new body, then could we say dogs died? Yes, dogs would still die -- but only if we didn't do the things necessary to keep them going. Otherwise, dogs (and humans) could be maintained and kept going indefinitely. This is the situation we find with robots, who are much easier to maintain for longer times because of their sturdier parts -- titanium and silicon and composite carbon, as opposed to the squishy jelly that makes up dogs and humans.

Now turn it around. Are robots ever alive? Mankind has long imbued special inanimate objects with spirit. Swords, boats, cars -- men often give these things names and treat them as if they had some kind of living spirit. And robots will probably become more and more lifelike, just like the robots/replicants in Blade Runner; made out of organic material like us, who's to say a robot/android isn't alive? As robots become more and more intelligent, and more able to make seemingly independent decisions, won't robots become more like dogs and less like cars? In which case, robots can die. Unless we take the steps to keep their spirit and intelligence and memories transferred or stored. Just like with dogs and humans.

"Do robots die?" is a much easier question to answer than "Do robots have souls?"

Answer 2

You short circuit them

another perspective:First, robots are not living entities, they are machines. As with any machine, robots are not alive. To stop a robot you can use any of a number of methods:

remove or otherwise disconnect power. Shut down the processor. Send the "halt" instruction. Smash it with something really big.