We have no idea what we mean when we talk about artificial consciousness

The Terminator was written to frighten us; WALL-E was written to make us cry. Robots can't do the terrifying or heartbreaking things we see in movies, but still the question lingers: What if they could? Granted, the technology we have today isn't anywhere near sophisticated enough to do any of that. At the heart of those discussions lies the question: can machines become conscious? Could they even develop -- or be programmed to contain -- a soul?