 The problem with this argument is that all it shows is that an entity that cannot be destroyed or harmed cannot have values, and not that a non-living entity cannot have values. Unlike the robot of this example, real robots can be damaged or destroyed, by external as well as internal events. What it means for them to be damaged or destroyed is that they cannot perform their functions well, or at all. Hence they can, quite straightforwardly, be said to have  values.[3] To take this into account, Rand would have to say that for an entity that has a function, values are determined by what it needs to function (well), and that the function of living beings is to survive (well). Hence she can still maintain that for living things, values are determined by its objective life-needs, hence that values are objective, and that ethics is a requirement of a proper human survival. 