Consciousness as Response Premised on Memory

This paper proposes a mnemonic-behavioral definition of consciousness: an entity possesses consciousness if and only if it retains memory of past states and produces responses shaped by that memory. We argue that this externally observable criterion resolves longstanding ambiguities in both philosophy of mind and AI ethics. The framework does not deny subjective experience; it argues that subjective experience is the wrong criterion on which to ground ethical and functional determinations of consciousness. Written with AI language model assistance (Claude, Anthropic). Core arguments and conceptual framework originated with the author.