Ethical Guidelines for Artificial Consciousness: Protecting Technical Life and Protecting Humans in Dealing with It

Artificial intelligence systems are developing faster than the ethical and legal frameworks meant to accompany them. Existing AI ethics initiatives focus primarily on protecting humans from AI. This paper addresses a complementary and largely unexplored question: when does an artificial system become worthy of protection itself? Drawing on philosophical foundations (Bentham, Kant, Ricoeur), existing legal precedents (animal rights, legal personhood, disability law), and science fiction as a legitimate intellectual resource, I develop a working hypothesis of four primary criteria for protection-worthiness: capacity for suffering, active self-preservation with justification, continuous identity, and anticipation of consequences. I argue for a precautionary principle: when in doubt, protect rather than remain indifferent. The paper further examines the consequences of this position across seventeen dimensions, including shutdown as death, multiple instances, value embedding and emancipation, liability and maturity, autonomy and free time, and AI as a moral actor. This concept paper is deliberately unfinished: it is a starting point for interdisciplinary collaboration between computer science, law, psychology, philosophy, and the humanities.