how machines can have feelings

It's not that complicated.

• 1. Humans are conscious only of experiences in sensory modalities ( data-types ).
• 2. The data presents in conscious memory upon a superimposed space :
• 2a. rendered input originating from other parts of the CNS such as memory and imagination, and
• 2b. SNS input which feeds through minimal distance in 2a.
• 3. To have an emotion is simply to have a shape of certain data-types in conscious memory

The implications are left as an exercise due to character count