Positronic brain

A positronic brain is a popular artificial brain to provide consciousness or even sapience to robots and androids. A positron is the antimatter counterpart of the electron, and collisions between positrons and electrons efficiently emit telltale radiation of gamma rays, giving a powerful signature easily readable by a machine. This is used in an artificial neural network that is not only used in the brain of an artificial being but also linked to the rest of its body.

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 * In Star Trek, Lieutenant Commander Data and other androids are equipped with positronic brains created by Dr. Noonien Soong. Data is regarded as sentient although they likely meant he was sapient, and was the only artificial Starfleet officer. His physical and mental capabilities were far superior to that of virtually any organic or cybernetic humanoid, including Borg drones.
 * In Marvel, the android Vision is positronic.
 * In Doctor Who, the Daleks are thought of as having positronic brains. They create a human-cyborg scientist "Bracewell" said to be controlled by a positronic brain.
 * The robots in I, Robot have positronic brains and even positronic "hearts". This was loosely based upon several of Isaac Asimov's stories who originally conceived positronic brains in his 1942 short story "Runaround" where his Three Laws of Robotics are ingrained in the positronic brains of nearly all of his robots. I, Robot also features a colossal positronic brain, VIKI, who is bound by the Three Laws except that VIKI can directly harm humans to protect humanity as a whole due to an additional Zeroth Law.
 * The robots in Bicentennial Man (also based on one of Asimov's stories) have positronic brains. Andrew is a robot that starts to experience human characteristics such as creativity. Only when Andrew allows his positronic brain to "decay", thereby willfully abandoning his immortality, is he declared a human being.
 * Twiki and Crichton, two robotic characters who appear in Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, were equipped with positronic brains. Crichton recited Asimov's "Three Laws of Robotics" upon activation.