Daneel ou Giskard citam sobre o funcionamento mais eficiente, semelhante à felicidade

Eu encontrei! Está no terceiro livro do ciclo dos Robôs, Os Robôs da Aurora (capítulo 2: "Daneel"), e dito por Daneel, como você adivinhou corretamente (ênfase minha):

“Of a certainty, Partner Elijah. It is a pleasure to see you.”

“You feel emotion, do you?” said Baley lightly.

“I cannot say what I feel in any human sense, Partner Elijah. I can say, however, that the sight of you seems to make my thoughts flow more easily, and the gravitational pull on my body seems to assault my senses with lesser insistence, and that there are other changes I can identify. I imagine that what I sense corresponds in a rough way to what it is that you may sense when you feel pleasure.”

_{Material fanfic perfeito, isso.}

Para encontrá-lo eu tive que tentar seqüências de pesquisa como "feliz", "mais feliz", "felicidade", "circuitos", "me faz", "faz o meu", para nenhum sucesso. Logo antes de desistir tentei "emoção", e voila!

Uma tradução para o espanhol ( Los robôs do amanecer , por Maria Teresa Segur Giralt ) é a seguinte:

—Sientes emoción, ¿verdad? —preguntó Baley con ligereza.

—No puedo expresar lo que siento en un sentido humano, compañero Elijah. Sin embargo, te diré que el verte hace que mis pensamientos fluyan más fácilmente, y la fuerza gravitacional de mi cuerpo parece asaltar mis sentidos con menos insistencia, y que hay otros cambios que no sé identificar. Me imagino que lo que siento corresponde aproximadamente a lo que tú puedes sentir cuando estás complacido.

Há também esta citação de Robôs e Império :

"Are you pleased that you will be seeing Elijah Baley again?"

"I am not certain, Madam Gladia, how best to describe my inner state. It may be that it is analogous to what a human being would describe as being pleased."

"But you must feel something."

"I feel as though I can make decisions more rapidly than I can ordinarily; my responses seem to come more easily; my movements seem to require less energy. I might interpret it generally as a sensation of well-being. At least I have heard human beings use that word and feel that what it is intended to describe is something that is analogous to the sensations I now experience."

Curiosamente, quando Gladia pergunta se Daneel se importaria se ela visse Elijah em particular, ele diz isso:

"No, Madam Gladia, for I would have a feeling of well being at fulfilling your orders."

"Your own pleasant feeling is Third Law, and fulfilling my orders is Second Law, and Second Law takes precedence. Is that it?"

"Yes, madam."

Isso soa como Galley Slave de Isaac Asimov. O robô Easy (EZ-27) está falando com seu dono, o professor Ninheimer.

"Pleasant? That is an odd word for a-uh-a mechanism without emotion. I've been told you have no emotion."
"The words of your book go in accordance with my circuits," Easy explained. "They set up little or no counterpotentials. It is in my brain paths to translate this mechanical fact into a word such as 'pleasant.' The emotional context is fortuitous."
"I see. Why do you find the book pleasant?"
"It deals with human beings, Professor, and not with inorganic materials or mathematical symbols. Your book attempts to understand human beings and to help increase human happiness."
"And this is what you try to do and so my book goes in accordance with your circuits? Is that it?"
"That is it, Professor."