Criteria of Consciousness: Consciousness as Measurable Bioelectric Activity and Its Manifestations in Living Systems

This paper proposes an operational criterion of consciousness. Consciousness is defined as the measurable bioelectric activity of a living system — primarily the membrane potential of cells — whose synchronization enables the system to sense, respond to stimuli, and move purposefully (e.g., toward food or away from danger). Measurable and substrate-independent, it yields a continuous scale from single cells to brains rather than a binary division, and relies on established measures of neural integration — integrated information (Φ) and the clinical Perturbational Complexity Index (PCI). The definition is deliberately operational and brackets the “hard problem” of subjective experience. An operational criterion and falsification condition are given.