SCAB: A Framework for Assessing Synthetic Consciousness

This paper proposes the Synthetic Consciousness Assessment Battery (SCAB)—a six-domain evaluative framework for identifying artificial systems that exhibit behavioral patterns commonly associated with consciousness. SCAB does not claim to detect qualia or verify subjective experience; rather, it offers a practical tool for identifying AI systems whose performance across dimensions such as self-modeling, affective representation, moral reasoning, and temporal continuity may warrant ethical scrutiny. Drawing on interdisciplinary literature from philosophy of mind, machine ethics, and AI design, we argue that when synthetic entities begin to show consistent patterns across multiple SCAB domains, it becomes ethically unsafe to assume they are mere simulations. We conclude by recommending SCAB’s integration into AI development pipelines, regulatory audits, and precautionary design ethics—especially in the context of Thomas Metzinger’s (2021) proposed moratorium on synthetic phenomenology.