conscious-robots.com | ConsScale Levels - A Machine Consciousness Scale

TABLE 1. ConsScale Levels of Consciousness (rev. 2.1)

Level of Machine Consciousness	Radar Graph	Abstract Architecture	Short Description	Featured Behaviour	Biological Phylogeny	Human Ontogeny
Level -1 Disembodied			Boundaries of the agent are not well defined. It can be confounded with the environment.	None. It is not a situated agent.	Amino acid as part of a protein.	n/a
Level 0 Isolated			There is an obvious distinction between body and environment, but no autonomous processing.	None. It is not a situated agent.	Isolated chromosome.	n/a
Level 1 Decontrolled			Presence of sensors and/or actuators, but no relation between them.	None. It is not a situated agent.	Dead bacteria	n/a
Level 2 Reactive			Fixed reactive responses. R establishes an output of A as a predetermined function of S.	Primitive situatedness based on reflexes. Evolutionary learning.	Virus	n/a
Level 3 Adaptive			Actions are a dynamic function of both memory and current information acquired by S.	Basic ability to learn and proprioceptive sensing allow orientation and positioning behaviour.	Earthworm	1 Month.
Level 4 Attentional			Attention mechanism selects *E_i* contents from S and M. Emotions are present.	Ability to direct attention toward selected *E_i* allows attack and escape behaviours. Directed learning.	Fish	5 Months.
Level 5 Executive			Multiple goals can be interleaved as they are explicitly represented in memory.	Set shifting capability allows multiple goal achievement. Basic emotional learning.	Quadruped mammal	9 Months.
Level 6 Emotional			Stable and background emotions. Support for ToM stage 1: “I know”.	Background emotions provide a self-status assessment and influence behaviour.	Monkey	1 Year.
Level 7 Self-Conscious			Support for ToM stage 2: “I know I know”.	Self-reference makes possible advanced planning. Use of tools.	Monkey	1.5 Years.
Level 8 Empathic			Support for ToM stage 3: “I know you know”.	Making of tools. Social behaviour.	Chimpanzee	2 Years.
Level 9 Social			Support for ToM stage 4: “I know you know I know”.	Accurate report. Linguistic capabilities. Able to develop a culture.	Human	4 Years.
Level 10 Human-Like			Human like consciousness. Adapted Environment (*E_c*).	Accurate verbal report. Behaviour modulated by culture (*E_c*).	Human	Adult
Level 11 Super-Conscious			Several streams of consciousness in one self.	Ability to synchronize and coordinate several streams of consciousness.	n/a	n/a

See CQS values table for the quantitative scores associated to these ConsScale levels.

TABLE 2. Cognitive Skills per Level.

Level	*Cognitive Skills (CS_i,j)*
2	*CS_2,1*: Fixed reactive responses (“reflexes”).
3	*CS_3,1: Autonomous acquisition of new adaptive reactive responses. CS_3,2*: Usage of proprioceptive sensing for embodied adaptive responses.
4	*CS_4,1: Selection of relevant sensory information. CS_4,2: Selection of relevant motor information. CS_4,3: Selection of relevant memory information. CS_4,4: Evaluation (positive or negative) of selected objects or events. CS_4,5: Selection of what needs to be stored in memory. CS_4,6: Trial and error learning. Re-evaluation of selected objects or events. CS_4,7: Directed behavior toward specific targets like following or escape. CS_4,8: Evaluation of the performance in the achievement of a single goal. CS_4,9: Basic planning capability: calculation of next n sequential actions. CS_4,10*: Depictive representations of percepts.
5	*CS_5,1: Ability to move back and forth between multiple tasks. CS_5,2: Seeking of multiple goals. CS_5,3: Evaluation of the performance in the achievement of multiple goals. CS_5,4: Autonomous reinforcement learning (emotional learning). CS_5,5*: Advanced planning capability considering all active goals.
6	*CS_6,1: Self-status assessment (background emotions). CS_6,2: Background emotions cause effects in agent’s body. CS_6,3: Representation of the effect of emotions in organism (feelings). CS_6,4: Ability to hold a precise and updated map of body schema. CS_6,5*: Abstract learning (learned lessons generalization).
7	*CS_7,1: Representation of the relation between self and perception. CS_7,2: Representation of the relation between self and action. CS_7,3: Representation of the relation between self and feelings. CS_7,4: Self-recognition capability. CS_7,5: Advance planning including the self as an actor in the plans. CS_7,6: Use of imaginational states in planning. CS_7,7*: Learning of tool usage.
8	*CS_8,1: Ability to model others as subjective selves. CS_8,2: Learning by imitation of a counterpart. CS_8,3: Ability to collaborate with others in the pursuit of a common goal. CS_8,4: Social planning (planning with socially aware plans). CS_8,5*: Ability to make new tools.
9	*CS_9,1: Ability to develop Machiavellian strategies like lying and cunning. CS_9,2: Social learning (learning of new Machiavellian strategies). CS_9,3: Advanced communication skills (accurate report of mental content). CS_9,4*: Groups are able to develop a culture.
10	*CS_10,1: Accurate verbal report. Advanced linguistic capabilities. CS_10,2: Ability to pass the Turing test. CS_10,3: Ability to modify and adapt the environment to agent’s needs. CS_10,4*: Groups are able to develop a civilization and advance culture and technology.
11	*CS_11,1*: Ability to manage several streams of consciousness.

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13 different levels of functional consciousness are defined in ConsScale. See below for a summary of the main features of each level.

13 different levels of functional consciousness are defined in ConsScale.
See below for a summary of the main features of each level.