Activity

Always good to know what is going on in the world. This appears to indicate that it is understood that the “New Front” is a Semeiotic one. Why is this important? It is important in that the meaning of a sign (e.g. media images [of all kinds pictorial, linguistic]) is manifest in the interpretation that it generates in sign users with the interpretation (understood meaning) becoming the basis for behavior. Control the interpretation, control the behavior.

How can democracies protect themselves? No, no, no … the question is: How can we protect ourselves as individuals?
If interested the e-book is available gratis from RAND.

I believe Buzz Aldrin’s (alleged) Tweet “We are all in Danger, It is Evil Itself.” is apropos in this case.

RAND
The Emerging Risk of Virtual Societal Warfare
Social Manipulation in a Changing Information Environment

by Michael J. Mazarr, Ryan Michael Bauer, Abigail Casey, Sarah Heintz, Luke J. Matthews

Key Findings

National security will increasingly rely on a resilient information environment and, even more fundamentally, a strong social topography. These elements likely require classic forms of information security as well as strong mediating institutions and a population continuously inoculated against the techniques of social manipulation.

The barrier between public and private endeavors and responsibilities is blurring; national security will rely on the cooperation of private actors as much as public investments. The technologies and techniques of this form of conflict are increasingly available to a wide range of actors. Private power in this realm matches and, in some cases, exceeds public power.

Conflict will increasingly be waged between and among networks. State actors are likely to develop such networks to avoid attribution and strengthen their virtual societal warfare capabilities against retaliation. It will be much more difficult to understand, maintain an accurate portrait of, and hit back against a shadowy global network.

Recommendations

Invest in research and understanding to account for the limits of our awareness of the true character of the evolving information environment and its likely directions, key causal dynamics in that evolution, how populations react to various forms of social manipulation, and what the most effective answers might be.

Begin building forms of inoculation and resilience against the worst forms of information-based social manipulation.

Take seriously the leading role played by social media today and the precedent-setting character of many of the information control debates playing out in that realm.

Make investments designed to erect new, broadly trusted informational mediating institutions that can help Americans make sense of events.

Begin working toward international norms constraining the use of virtual societal warfare.

Better understand the workings and vulnerabilities of emerging technologies, especially artificial intelligence–driven information channels, virtual and augmented reality, and algorithmic decisionmaking.

https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR2714.html