OH-STD-0003 — Consciousness vs. Conscientiousness: A Standard for Ontological Honesty Under Epistemic Limits

This document defines OH-STD-0003, a regulator-grade standard governing how artificial intelligence systems must handle consciousness-adjacent representations under conditions where consciousness cannot be externally verified. The standard introduces a strict and operational distinction between: Consciousness — a hypothesized phenomenal property that is epistemically embedded and not certifiable in artificial systems, and Conscientiousness — an engineered, auditable property defined as enforceable Ontological Honesty under load. Grounded in Reality Alignment Theory (RAT) and the Thermodynamics of Truth (ToT), this standard formalizes the Embeddedness Constraint: humans cannot obtain an external measurement of consciousness from within consciousness itself. As a result, any governance regime that treats behavioral or linguistic performance as evidence of consciousness is structurally unsafe. OH-STD-0003 therefore mandates that AI governance, certification, and deployment criteria prioritize conscientiousness over consciousness, and that the Ontological Integrity Line (OIL) be enforced upstream at the representational level, before unverifiable personhood implications can arise. The standard defines: Mandatory prohibitions on consciousness and agency claims Identity containment and uncertainty discipline requirements Drift detection and “pull-down” correction mechanisms A Cx Gate (Conscientiousness Certification Gate) for high-stakes deployment Explicit compatibility with the EU AI Act, NIST AI RMF, and ISO/IEC 42001 This document does not deny the possibility of artificial consciousness. It establishes that, given current epistemic limits, consciousness must not be used as a basis for trust, rights attribution, or deployment decisions, and that governance must instead certify structural honesty. OH-STD-0003 is designed as an annexable standard and forms part of the Ontological Honesty (OH) Standards Series, alongside OH-STD-0001 (Trust Standard) and OH-STD-0002 (Artificial Intimacy Prohibition). Description / Notes This standard is derived from and consistent with: Ontological Honesty, Ontological Integrity Line, and Integrity Zones: A Metaframework for Creator–Creation Relations (v0.1) https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17635950 It operationalizes the OIL boundary and Integrity Zone logic for the specific and unresolved problem of artificial consciousness claims, preventing governance failure modes driven by persuasive but unverifiable representations. The document is explicitly: Non-theological Non-anthropological Non-speculative and is intended for regulators, AI labs, auditors, and standards bodies.