Cutting -edge | The pulse of quasi -cognitive domain operations -exploration of the characteristics and development trends of cognitive domain operations

Author:Chinese strategic support Time:2022.08.17

Cognitive domain operations are direct combat objects of people's will, beliefs, thinking, psychology, etc., and affect their decisions and actions by changing their opponent cognition. Entering the era of information intelligence intelligence, cognitive domain operations have become an important style of the game of great powers, and all parties have tried to achieve political purposes in a relatively controllable way. Paying insight into the characteristics of cognitive domain operations and development trends, it has an important and important practical significance for winning future wars.

The pulse of the quasi -cognitive domain operation

——The analysis of the characteristics and development trends of cognitive domains

■ Yang Cunshe

At present, the cognitive domain has appeared on the stage of war as an independent domain. The characteristics and development trends of cognitive domains are at least reflected in the following eight aspects.

Cognitive domain is the key domain of the transformation of military advantages into a political victory

On the surface, military confrontation is a confrontation between the two sides. In the deep level, regardless of the nature of the war and what the purpose of the war, it is a contest of human will. The key to victory is the ability to strengthen their own will to the audience. As long as it deprives and defeats the will of the enemy's war, it means winning the war. Cognitive domain operations take people's will, spirit, psychology, etc. as the goal, enhance their will, while weakening the enemy's will, and then achieve the political purpose of attacking. In this sense, the cognitive domain is the key domain of the transformation of military advantages into a political victory. With the acceleration of the form of war to the evolution of intelligence, the advantages of cognitive quality brings the advantages of decision -making actions, not only can occupy the commanding heights in terms of morality and law, shape the favorable situation of justice and legality, but also achieve a small war through mixed war and comprehensive game means to achieve small warfare. The purpose of not even wins. Especially in the context of the competition in large powers, the cost of war is high. All parties hope that by increasing the competition for the cognitive domain, in the form of "humanitarian" and "economy", the opponent will be forced to retreat.

By changing the opponent cognition, it can change its decision -making and action

The purpose of implementing a cognitive attack is to use a "invisible hand" to control the will of the opponent, so that the opponent feels "I can't" and "I don't dare", and then achieve the effect of "I don't want to". Foreign military practice has shown that cognitive attacks on people's will, beliefs, thinking, and psychological implementation can be long -term cultural implants, information suppression of "information ocean+covering the mouth and sealed". Active shaping can also use historical resentment to provoke contradictions. At present, information technology, artificial intelligence technology, and media technology have strengthened their direct effects on the cognitive domain. The use of intelligent generating software can create a large number of cognitive layers of cognitive "ammunition", which can accurately act on combat goals. "For the opponent", quickly change the strategic situation. Looking forward to the intelligent battlefield of informatization, the power perception power and the platform are widely distributed in combat domains such as the land, sea, and empty sky. The advantage will lead the battlefield. By cognitive interference, cognitive confusion, cognitive blocking, etc., the war cognitions "fog", to seduce the opponent to misjudgrate the situation and make wrong decisions and actions.

Cognitive domain operations are full -time offensive and defensive, all -staff coverage, full use, global shaping, and all government actions

Cognitive domain operations show the characteristics of comprehensive, multi -level, multi -level, overtime, cross -domain, etc., blurred the boundaries of time, front and rear of war, crossing the battlefield and national boundaries, beyond the pure military field, extensively penetrated into politics in politics , Economy, diplomacy and other social fields are manifested as the characteristics of the "Five Complete". Full -time offense and defense, there is no distinction between war, no difference in front and rear, manifested as full -time online, full -time war. All members cover, and anyone or even intelligent robots may become the target target of cognitive domain operations. After using it throughout the war, after the war before the war, the joint military operations did not begin, the cognitive plastic operation had begun, and it was accompanied by military operations. It did not stop with military operations. Global shaping, cognitive shaping through all levels of strategies, battles, and tactics, the scope of the role covers the various domains of the land, sea, and air network, and cross -domain empowerment, which has an impact on global actions. All government actions, cognition to shape naturally strategic, and require consistent coordination operations across departments, cross -field, cross -military, and cross -level to achieve the best communication effect.

The key is the right to define the nature of the control or activity, the right to dominate, and the right to end

The cognitive game struggle involves multiple warmers, which seems to be complicated. The key is to fight for the "three powers" around the cognitive domain. First, compete for the nature of the incident. That is, what should I think of this incident, whether it is justice or justice, whether it is legal or illegal. Generally, the preemptor definition, forcibly define the federation of alliances, the definition of information suppression, and set the definition of topics, etc., to guide the shape of the people to form qualitative cognition. Second, the dominance of the incident process. That is to say, how to do this, what should not do, who is doing right, who does it wrong, usually adopts the method of setting up a bureau's cloth trap to try to dominate the development direction of the target event in accordance with the status that has the expectations of the target event. Quick, suspension, continuing and ending. Third, the right to compete for the end of the incident. That is how to comment on this matter, who is a profitable party, who is the damage party, who is the defeat in front of you, who is the long -term damage, and so on. All parties are trying to increase the right to the end of the incident, which is enlarged by the advantages of their own advantages and the disadvantages of the enemy. The purpose is to use the event extension effect to continue to hurt the enemy.

Morality and law are the focus of competing for all parties

Military operations have always paid attention to "teachers' famous". Although the form of war has accelerated, the essential attributes of war from politics will not change; the nature of war and human heart is still a key factor affecting the victory and defeat of the war. On the cognitive domain battlefield, the commanding heights of politics, morality, and jurisprudence can win people's hearts and moral support, create a more helpful public opinion atmosphere, and then grasp the enemy's pioneer. Every war or conflict, whether it is a strong or weak, whether the offensive defensive or third party, all parties will try their best to seize the right to cognitive dominance and public opinion. The qualitative of the war, rectifying the actions to eliminate resistance, increase assistance, and shape the favorable situation of "no way" to cut the "no way". The comparison between the two sides of the war is different, and the cognitive confrontation of the aiming of the height of the moral and legal system will also be different. In recent wars, when one side is strong and strong, that is, strong military strength, many allies and partners, and large international discourse share, often declare warfare; when military operations may cause a chain response, they often blur the treatment. "Battle". Information is the basic "ammunition" of cognitive offense and defense

In the era of network information, the methods of human communication continued to change complicated and profound changes. On -site interaction has gradually allowed to connect online on the Internet. Some large social platforms have become the main position of cognitive game struggle and the main channels that affect people's cognition. One of the main actions of confrontation. On these platforms, various short videos have become the "first scene" for the public to understand the situation, and the information runs faster than the shell. Focusing on the use and blockade of the platform, leading, and regulatory regulations have become the focus of the cognitive domain operation competition. All parties strive to spread and enlarge their own propaganda by manipulating social platforms. "I'm right, the wrong you say" "I can only say, don't let you say". As a user of a large social platform, the public, in the process of "listening" and "speaking" or even "doing", was influenced by others and affected others. It unknowingly became the agent and attack props behind the scenes.

Military operations have a key support for cognitive shaping

History of human war shows that soldiers are always the basic support of political contests, and heart warfare is the efficiency of the war war. What can't be taken back on the battlefield, you can't expect to take it back on the negotiating table, let alone take it back on the public opinion field. In modern warfare, cognitive communication operations are always followed by joint military operations, and the influence and support of each other's war and warfare is supporting each other. From the perspective of war practice, there is no military strength, but only military operations are not universal. The multiple victory on the battlefield is not a sufficient condition for winning the victory of the war. In the Vietnam War, the United States "won the entire war every battle, but lost the entire war." At the beginning of the 21st century, the Iraqi war and Afghanistan war in the United States won the battlefield and did not win political victory. The same reason, the military victory does not mean to win the strength of public opinion, and winning the battlefield to win does not mean a strategic victory. In modern warfare, the role of two types of personnel is increasingly. One type of personnel can win by writing thousands of lines of code, and one type of personnel can win thousands of information. The quality of these two types of personnel accounted for the best quality, and the probability of winning is often a large.

Cognitive confrontation technology is becoming more and more directly used in war

In the past war, the impact and role of cognitive domains were mainly transmitted to the cognitive domain layer by layer by layer by layer through a large number of damage operations in the physical domain. With the development and breakthrough of technologies such as information communication, artificial intelligence, biological cross, and brain science, new cognitive war tools and technologies are directly targeting military personnel. Cognitive confrontation not only uses traditional information war weapons, but also uses a neural weapon library with the brain as the target of combat. At that time, the machine will be able to understand the human brain, and the human brain will be able to directly control the machine. The intelligent charges can directly provide the battlefield trend and decision -making assistance. Realistic cognitive ammunition and precise audience will greatly enhance the effects of social impact. Cognitive confrontation technology is becoming more and more directly used in war. The indirect cognition implied by the original informatization is gradually transforming into a direct impact and control of people's cognition. It can be said that the support of advanced technology enables cognitive domain operations to build a modern network structure and develop data visualization platform, quickly understand the information environment and effectively affect the target population, and can achieve political purposes more directly and efficiently.

(Author Unit: Institute of War of War of the Academy of Military Sciences)

▲ Published on August 16th Edition "PLA Daily"