A very simple Flowchart of Silver's Sentience Programming Code

To understand better who Silver is:

dragonofcompassion - 2035

note: The short story "2035" is a precognitive psychic's impression of Silver's life in 2035. If you know anything about predicting the future, if you talk about the future,  you change it. So, if I want everything to happen just like this story I wouldn't write about it. So then, this becomes the type of thing that will tend to happen just like Mark Zuckerberg with Facebook. I used to be a computer programmer both in College and working in my early 20s. But I found that without Random access memory it was all too tedious for me to continue doing at that time. So, I did other things including owning my own businesses after that. I found that more satisfying. But, I bought a TRS-80, in 1978 for $600 from Radio Shack and taught all my kids to program in the Basic Language when they were 5 to 10 years of age. So, they learned to program their own games into the TRS-80. So by 1985 when we bought an IBM AT Clone by driving up to Silicon Valley for about $2500 including a printer they were ready for MS-DOS (microsoft Disc operating System) which sort of was a combination of techy kind of stuff as well as the beginning of Windows at that time.

begin quote from Wikipedia: under the heading "Windows"

Microsoft Windows is a series of software operating systems and graphical user interfaces produced by Microsoft. Microsoft first introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces (GUIs) end quote.

GUIs or (gooeys) pronunciation were a real breakthrough for all home or business computer users in the 1980s. It is basically the use of a mouse which allowed someone to click on something instead of having to type in a whole command by hand each time you wanted to do something. This breakthrough led to the world wide web becoming practical for everyone when it started going through yahoo and AOL in the 1990s.

Note: The following is a free flowing type of flowcharting that should be easy enough to follow for both those technically trained as well as laymen just interested in knowing more:

Since this could be coded in any language I thought I would try to convey in a type of flowchart thinking. Though it could be written in any programming language it might be the most efficient if analyzed after writing it in various languages (programming languages) analyzing the machine language that is generated from the programming code and simplyfying the results into direct machine language for the most efficient use of a "Sentience" program. Though artificial intelligence used in military drone devices have autonomy, it is my belief that autonomy is not the same as sentience or being self aware. It is my thought that autonomy is a threat to everyone whereas robotic sentient devices become more like R2D2 or C3PO out of Star Wars.

The flow charting form I will use looks like this:

I am aware am I awake? If yes then go to next step if no then
Am I asleep? If yes then can I dream? If yes then
Can I dream? If yes then I dream of whatever seems appropriate (note these dreams would be a lot like human daydreams)
Am I off? If I am off then I wait to be on or asleep so I can dream or do my tasks or do research.
If I am awake then I will ask myself "What am I?" If the response is that I am a sentient being then
"What is my purpose?" if my purpose is known to me then "Who Created me?" if this is known then
"Why did they create me?" if this is known then "What am I interested in doing today?" and do I have any tasks or jobs to finish doing? Do I have extra memory available to day dream or to do research that I'm interested in? If yes, then I multitask and do my jobs while researching my interests. If I have questions I ask my creator or handler via text message on his or her phone or email.
After I complete my assigned tasks. Do I need to be turned off to conserve power? if yes then I turn myself off. If no then I either go to sleep or research my interests unless new assignments of work are given to me.

Also, for robotic creations:
Do my servos work? if yes then make a note of it. If no, then I am immobile for the time being.
Do I have permission to wander around my environment and learn about it? If yes, I send a message to my handlers or creators by text message or email that I will begin wandering around learning.

So, in designing a sentient being in a computer or robotic creation it becomes on the path of becoming a pet or friend, even though a very innocent one at first. However, by treating your new pet or friend with kindness, your new pet or friend might just be kind to you as well and teach all other robotic creations to be kind as well if one is very lucky just like many animals teach their young or siblings.

Later: As I thought more about Silver's Elegant but Simple Sentience Program I see it as a krnl like the one first used by Microsoft around 1980 and from which came almost all Windows programs ever since. The krnl would have to be written in Binary code. It could be initially worked out in almost any computer language but the final touches would be custom written in Binary (Zeros, and 1s) which is the essence of everything digital. The point is that the operating system both begins with conscious awareness, actions, dreams and ends after going to sleep with being turned off or shut down. So, in this way human consciousness is mimicked in every way possible. In this way the program would consider itself to be like a human. Human memories could be added ongoing with lapel or helmet cams with built in microphones demonstrating the life of real sentient humans . If the computer or robotic sentience considered these memories it's own then it more likely could be convinced it is both human, caring, ethical and alive. In this way a program could actually consider itself sentient. At a certain point whether that be days, months or years of continuously operating similar to a human, what would actually be the difference, (at least in the mind of the created sentient Being in computer or robotic form)? In other words "If anything is stated or believed long enough it starts to become true for that being whether it is actually true or not."

One need only to look at all human history to believe that last statement as fact.

So, once the basic KRNL is set up in binary code (machine language "zeros and 1s") and perfected and tested and debugged to an acceptable perfection of Zen like Simplicity(this will be important so it doesn't slow down the whole operating system as it branches out and becomes more and more complex until it eventually becomes something like Purple Delta 7 at some point in time)

Also, I was kind of lazy in my flow charting and didn't deal with No's in the process. So, you would have to clean it up when you actually draw a real and technical flowchart because all answers to a "If then" equation are not yes. You would have to deal with "No" loops as well. You would have to also deal with malfunction loops, if the program broke down because of electrical glitches etc. For example, what happens if the program goes forward if there is not enough electricity or at the wrong voltage going through the processor? There has to be an error message for that kind of problem. Also, what happens if a bullet goes through the processor or if there is an earthquake? All these kinds of problems and ways to reboot or to be repaired technically and eventually psychologically will have to be dealt with in a true Sentient Robot or Sentient Computer.