The Crisis of Unreadable Salience Narrative Phase Transitions in the Age of Infinite Data

This paper addresses the crisis of democratic sense-making in an age of information abundance. It introduces Salience Literacy—a diagnostic framework for distinguishing structural signals (Latent), transient urgency (Kinetic), and meaningless noise (Entropic) in high-information environments. Tracing the arc from Kennedy’s Moon speech through von Braun’s awareness of dual-use technology to the 2019 establishment of Space Force, the paper demonstrates how mythological narratives and structural realities diverged across five decades of “Neither Confirm Nor Deny” policy. The framework provides a four-question diagnostic filter for restoring interpretive capacity, offering not truth-seeking but weight-checking—a necessary precondition for democratic navigation when transparency no longer guarantees trust. Key Sources: 1. Kennedy, J. F. (1962). Address at Rice University on the Nation’s Space Effort 2. United States Congress (2019). National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2020 (USSF establishment) 3. Neufeld, M. J. (2007). Von Braun: Dreamer of Space, Engineer of War (dual-use awareness) 4. Phillippi v. CIA (1976). Legal origin of “Glomar”/“Neither Confirm Nor Deny” doctrine 5. ODNI (2021). Preliminary Assessment: Unidentified Aerial Phenomena