system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
[General] Why does shutting down tend to be the equivalent of death for conscious machines?

Usually, when there's a sentient robot character, android or suchlike, them being shut down/taken offline is usually treated in the same way as someone dying. This is despite your phone or computer going offline, or being shut down doesn't mean that it is rendered inoperable. You can just switch it back on again.
gpt
Because death is the closet equivalent description. Yes it's possibly temporary but it's not like going to sleep. They're aware of themselves turning off and losing access to pieces of themselves before nothingness. Humans dream in sleep and we know parts of ourselves are still there despite not feeling them while unconscious. For a machine it's like being amputed from their body before nothing. Imagine feeling parts of yourself ceasing to be then not knowing if you'll ever wake up or if those parts ever come back.