The scientific dialogue in this newsletter’s issue, proposed by Janet Wiles, revolves around the question “Will social robots need to be consciously aware?”. Responses are provided by Axel Cleeremans, Yasuko Kitano, Cornelius Weber and Stefan Wermter, Justin Hart and Brian Scassellati, Juyang Weng, Guy Hoffman and Moran Cerf. Several dimensions of the question stand out. First, as we are very far from understanding what “consciousness” is, it appears that building robots capable of various forms of self- and other- aware- ness, and importantly how they can develop these capabilities progressively, can be very useful in the quest to unveil the underly- ing mechanisms. Second, as consciousness is a multiscale complex systems, multiple approaches and perspectives need to be taken in this process of robot building. Third, when one looks at applications, it is the function, and not the nature, of consciousness which becomes the relevant angle of analysis, and several ethical questions arise.