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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/43942
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/43942
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

 **Following the previous question:**

- [Characterizing a sentient robot: sensory data](https://writing.stackexchange.com/questions/43941/characterizing-a-sentient-robot-sensory-data)

I'm writing a robot character with a particular PoV. In the previous question I wanted to talk about sensory data; here I would like to open a wider topic. I know that this risks going into opinion-based territory, but I want to take this chance.

**Context:** Some of my sentient beings mimic humans (they experience the world as we do; they have a notion of emotions, bonding, and a similar rate of intellect), some others are more close to the classical all-knowing, uncaring AI (extremely analytical, with a purpose, but devoid of emotional intelligence or feeling).

On a _middle ground_, I have robots. Sentience is one of the themes in my novel, so I'm avoiding black-and-white definition. Some robots can think; some cannot. Some are capable of performing complex tasks, yet are not "sentient", and some have more mundane abilities, yet they have a notion of self.

In this gray scale of various degrees of intelligence, my PoV character has to feel both _alive, sentient, relatable_ and _alien, different, and inhuman_.

I'm struggling to understand how I could characterize his way of thinking without resorting to cheap tricks. Yet I don't want him to be just a "brain in a metallic body" - as I mentioned, I already have cyborgs and simil-humans. I do not need more.

I'm interested in ways to portray an **internal thought process different that the human one**. To be fair, this same question could be applied to an alien character with a biology extremely different from our own.

But there lies the question. As a human, I can only think as a human would.

## How do you write a PoV and thought processes of something inherently different from a human mind?

Related, in another genre:

- [How to Write an Eldritch Abomination?](https://writing.stackexchange.com/questions/38369/how-to-write-an-eldritch-abomination?r=SearchResults&s=1|34.1953)

Original score: 7