Consciousness as Coherence-First: Logic, EQ, and SQ as Orientation Engines — and Structural Intelligence as the Audit Function in the AI Era

Generative AI makes coherent discourse abundant, forcing a distinction ordinary life used to blur: coherence is cheap, but truth remains constrained. This paper proposes a functional model of consciousness in which the primary task is not truth-tracking but orientation-maintenance, because coherence is the minimum condition for continuity and action. Logic, EQ, and SQ are reframed as coherence engines that stabilize experience, while Structural Intelligence is introduced as a distinct audit capacity that tests whether coherence is actually load-bearing under contact—correction, contradiction, cost, time, and repair. The model explains why insight often stalls at “this makes sense… but it doesn’t work,” and why epistemic maturity now requires tethering mechanisms rather than rhetorical skill. It also draws an ethical implication: when coherence functions as someone’s floor, insight without consent can become destabilization rather than help.