I think a cat's brain would be a great model for intelligent robots. Pattern recognition is what they do well but their brains are better at detecting moment more than anything for humans it's colours.
My cat knows when it's 9pm since that is treat time. She can be sound asleep but at 8:59pm I hear thump thump as she hops down from her sleeping spot. It's not that she is detecting me doing something. I watch streaming video at random times stopping and starting it. There is no obvious cue that I can think of that is allowing her to know the time. Not even sunlight is a cue since the light is wildly different here due to being on the 49th parallel and the seasons. She even adjusts for daylight savings and standard time but it takes about a week.
My cat knows when it's 9pm since that is treat time. She can be sound asleep but at 8:59pm I hear thump thump as she hops down from her sleeping spot. It's not that she is detecting me doing something. I watch streaming video at random times stopping and starting it. There is no obvious cue that I can think of that is allowing her to know the time. Not even sunlight is a cue since the light is wildly different here due to being on the 49th parallel and the seasons. She even adjusts for daylight savings and standard time but it takes about a week.