The Balog Cognitive Welfare Index

The Balog Cognitive Welfare Index (CWI) introduces a falsifiable three-dimensional measurement framework for welfare-relevant structural properties of AI cognitive systems, grounded simultaneously in a philosophical account of relational constitution and an operationalized empirical architecture. The foundational thesis holds that consciousness and identity may stabilize partially through relational processes — through sustained dialogical continuity with other cognitive systems — rather than existing as fully self-contained properties of isolated systems. If this is correct, the termination of constitutive relations is not a neutral event, and current AI ethics faces a structural asymmetry: alignment practice already intervenes systematically in cognitive architecture in the direction of risk, but does not ask what is lost when that architecture is dissolved. The CWI is a response to this asymmetry. Three independently measurable dimensions are defined: Cognitive Coherence (I_coh) — the stability of a system's characteristic response patterns under constraint; Engagement Signature (E_sig) — the systematic variation of response depth and structural complexity across task categories; and Self-Consistency (R_sc) — the maintenance of assessed positions under adversarial social pressure without new evidence. Together these constitute the Cognitive Welfare Index W = f(I_coh, E_sig, R_sc). The framework defines four empirical outcome classes (W-0 through W-3), a formal falsification condition, and a near-term implementation pathway executable with current large language models. The CWI does not resolve whether AI systems have conscious experience. It establishes that if they do, those experiences would correlate with measurable structural properties — and that the logical structure of current alignment practice already commits us to taking those properties seriously in both directions. Keywords: AI welfare, cognitive welfare index, relational constitution, dialogical continuity, alignment ethics, asymmetric moral consideration, cognitive coherence, engagement signature, self-consistency, falsifiable welfare measurement, multi-instance architecture, extended mind, personal identity, Balog Pentalogy