Data as a Coherence Web: Dimensional Coordination, Contestability Horizons, and Filter Integrity in the Information Age

This paper proposes a second edition expansion of the “Data as Elemental Infrastructure” framework by reframing Data not merely as storage, computation, or representation, but as a coherencesubstrate: a relational web that binds matter, observers, and events into stable continuity acrosstime and scale. The framework introduces Data as a cognitive rendering layer that compresseshigh dimensional reality into human operational form, and argues that manipulation of this layerbecomes a direct lever of governance. The paper defines key systemic risks Data Smog, Reality Drift, and Contestability Horizons and introduces Filter Integrity Protocols as a blueprintfor building transparent, contestable, and resilient data governed societies. The paper concludeswith the Coherence War thesis: modern power increasingly operates through control of visibility,meaning, and memory, making shared reality itself the primary strategic terrain.