Salience

Canonical definition

Salience is the Observer's conditional, continuous calculation of how much an Object or Individual-as-Object matters: the gradient evaluation the Observer computes, under the Individual's own Belief Register, over whatever the observed presents (curated and ambient signals alike). Salience is the receiving-side quantity, distinct from the observed's binary state of being Salient: the observed can act to become Salient, but the Salience placed on it is the observer's alone and cannot be set by the observed (the Salience-Emission Asymmetry). The calculation is always run against a basis, or Referent: an Individual-as-Object may be Salient for a Referent, because they meet an Appetitive need (the grocer, the doctor) or enable Intrinsic engagement (the teacher who expands what one can do), Salience that tracks a real contribution and is bounded by it (aggregating to Status-A and Status-I); or Referent-less, Salient in and of itself with no A- or I-contribution beneath it, Salience for its own sake, which is exactly the Mimetic Premium (aggregating to Status-PM). The Referent-backed components are legitimate and must be met; only the Referent-less component is parasitic and non-satiating, because there is no Referent against which it could satiate. Salience is instantaneous and intra-individual; its time-averaged, population aggregate is Status (the Salience-Status Identity), whose three components (Status-A, Status-I, Status-PM) are the aggregates of the three bases. The signal carrying Salience into common-currency integration is Mimetic Desire (M); because the Referent-less component is integrated into a deficit-correcting Scalar, it is felt as a deficit and does not satiate (the Salience-Deficit Conflation Principle).