Butter Robot

The Butter Robot is a thought experiment from philosopher David Chalmers that explores questions about consciousness and free will. It describes a robot that has a single purpose: to get butter from a hill. The robot notices the butter and tries to reach it, but a built-in switch sometimes causes it to forget its goal and walk away. This example illustrates how a machine with a fixed program can sometimes act unpredictably, raising questions about whether consciousness or free will can truly exist in mechanical systems or if such behaviors imply something beyond mere programming.