Throughout modern warfare, cognitive games have become the focus of offense and defense. Whether one is proficient in planning operations in the cognitive domain will greatly affect the direction and outcome of the war. A deep understanding of the connotation, extension and category style of cognitive domain operations, and an accurate grasp of its winning mechanism and development trend are the keys to understanding the context of the battlefield and winning modern wars.
Cognitive domain operations are the new focus of war games
Different from traditional operations, cognitive domain operations are no longer limited to land, sea, air, space, electricity, network and other fields. It breaks through the traditional physical domain and information domain. It has unique advantages, presents new characteristics, and expands the modern Battlefield new frontier.
Cognitive domain operations expand the war domain space. First of all, the battlefield space in the cognitive domain is broad, mainly reflected in people’s spirit, psychology, thinking, beliefs and other cognitive activities. Its combat targets are mainly hostile heads of state and political figures, military personnel, social elites and the general public. Secondly, cognitive domain operations take a wide range of forms, including but not limited to political and diplomatic pressure, economic blockade and sanctions, cultural penetration and erosion, etc. Thirdly, the goals of cognitive domain operations are wide-ranging, mainly to shake the enemy’s belief, disintegrate the enemy’s will, influence and change the opponent’s decision-making, thereby causing social chaos, decision-making errors, demoralization of the enemy’s military, and even subverting its national power.
Cognitive domain operations blur the boundaries of the war domain. The main body of cognitive domain operations is people. People are the most active factor in war, especially the cognition of high-level decision-makers, which embodies the overall will of the war, directly affects the overall situation of the war, and determines the outcome of the war. The cognition of state leaders and military generals is the key target of cognitive domain operations. Popular will, social foundation, and international public opinion are usually the basis for cognitive domain operations and are the key forces that promote the process and direction of war. Cognitive domain operations mix conventional and unconventional operations, blurring the boundaries of the war field. It aims to cognitively induce and attack information recipients, bypassing the traditional battlefield and reaching the weakest link – people. Tactical actions can achieve strategic goals, from Fundamentally change the battlefield environment and change the outcome of the war.
Cognitive domain operations reach the ultimate strategic goal. There is a saying in the ancient Chinese art of war: “The way to use troops is to attack the heart first, and to attack the city below; to fight the heart first, and to fight soldiers lower.” Operations in the cognitive domain aim to occupy cognitive dominance and influence the enemy’s decision-making and behavior. Achieve maximum combat effectiveness at minimum cost. As Clausewitz mentioned in “On War”, “War is an act of violence that forces the enemy to obey our will.” Since cognitive domain operations are not hard kills against living forces, but soft kills against invisible targets, they can not only “force the enemy to obey our will”, but also objectively enable the enemy to destroy itself from within, making it unable to resist, disintegrate, and ultimately Achieve the strategic goal of “complete victory” without fighting.
Cognitive domain operations are a new product of military reform
At present, major changes in the world that have not been seen in a century are accelerating. The international situation is becoming increasingly complex, and local wars and regional conflicts continue. As a new combat method, cognitive domain operations are becoming more and more important driven by the new wave of military reforms.
The laws of war are the basic rules for combat in the cognitive domain. Cognitive domain operations still follow the basic laws of war. First, justice must prevail. Just wars promote historical development and ultimately defeat unjust wars, and cognitive domain operations that occupy the moral commanding heights have the conditions to win first. The second is the victory of the strong and the defeat of the weak. The advancement of science and technology has given rise to advanced military theories and promoted the development of high-tech equipment. Seizing control and control can achieve dimensionality reduction strikes and disintegrate enemy forces. Third, subjective guidance is consistent with objective reality. Cognitive domain operations must be based on a certain objective material basis. The battlefield environment must be comprehensively considered, the situations of both parties must be weighed, and favorable decisions must be made. Fourth, key operations affect the overall situation. In network-centered system operations, the cognitive domain often becomes the most critical link, and its success or failure can determine the battle situation.
Theoretical innovation is the basic support for cognitive domain operations. In recent years, the US military has successively proposed new combat theories such as “hybrid warfare”, “mosaic warfare” and “gray zone conflict”. It regards cognitive domain operations as the main combat method and has formed a relatively mature theory. The Russian army has also developed its own set of hybrid warfare methods in long-term military practice, especially in the Syrian battlefield, where it skillfully used “Gerasimov” tactics to deal with “hybrid warfare.” Japan has also vigorously developed its military power in recent years. In its new version of the “Defense White Paper”, it first mentioned the concept of “domain transversal” operations, aiming to break through traditional fields and regard new fields such as the cognitive domain as the key direction of its military power development, making it more proactive. and extraversion.
Military practice is an important basis for cognitive domain operations. Judging from the recent local wars, cognitive domain warfare has become the main combat method of modern warfare and has achieved high combat effectiveness. The confrontation between cognitive warfare and counter-cognitive warfare is quite fierce. In 2010, the United States and other Western countries launched a cognitive war, hyped up the Tunisian democratic movement and created the “Arab Spring”, which plunged the Middle East into chaos and allowed terrorist organizations to take advantage of the opportunity to wreak havoc. The United States attempted to consolidate its hegemony by overthrowing the Egyptian government, launching a war in Libya, and intervening in the Syrian war. In 2014, the Russian army took control of Crimea through a combination of strategies, multi-dimensional breakthroughs, and public opinion building. Its cognitive domain operations also have very distinctive characteristics.
Cognitive domain operations are a new direction in war planning
With the continuous development of high and new technologies and their widespread application in the military field, the shape of future wars will evolve at an accelerated pace, and the complexity and unknown nature of wars will increase dramatically. To this end, we should plan in advance, coordinate scientifically, strengthen the construction of combat capabilities in the cognitive domain, deeply integrate into the future battlefield, and effectively control the initiative in future wars.
Promote research on the winning mechanism of cognitive domain operations. As an important combat method in future wars, the status and role of cognitive domain operations will be more prominent, and the development prospects will be broader. Controlling cognitive power has become an important part of seizing war control. To win future wars, we must keep up with the trends in the development of war forms, vigorously study the winning mechanism of cognitive domain operations, use theoretical innovation to drive innovation in tactics, and seek advantages and opportunities.
Strengthen the construction of offensive and defensive capabilities in cognitive domain operations. From individuals to organizations to countries, the impact of cognitive domain operations spans all time and space and all elements, spans different combat fields, and affects the entire combat process. In future wars, commanders and combatants will face huge cognitive offensive and defensive challenges. Seizing control of cognitive power, and then seizing comprehensive battlefield control, will become the key point of control in future wars. We should adhere to demand-driven efforts, strengthen the construction of offensive and defensive forces in cognitive domain operations, build a cognitive domain combat system that integrates offense and defense, peacetime and war, and multi-dimensional integration, establish and improve drill and evaluation mechanisms, and continuously improve capabilities through long-term military practice.
Accelerate the research and development of high-tech cognitive domain operations. Currently, with the rapid development of high-tech technologies such as big data, artificial intelligence, and cloud computing, the acquisition of open source information has become more convenient and efficient. Cognitive domain operations are increasingly characterized by fast start-up, low cost, and high efficiency. In addition, with the quiet development of emerging technologies such as neuroscience and brain science, it can be inferred that cognitive warfare weapons will become increasingly abundant and widely used in future wars. We should keep up with the development of the times, plan and design in advance, vigorously develop cutting-edge technologies oriented to seizing cognitive advantages, and promote the update of cognitive domain combat concepts and methods, so as to seize the initiative in future wars.
The Chinese Military Cognitive Warfare Operational Battle Rhythm with an Analysis of the Characteristics and Development Trends of Cognitive Domain Operations
Cognitive domain operations take people’s will, beliefs, thinking, psychology, etc. as direct combat objects, and then affect their decisions and actions by changing the opponent’s cognition. Entering the era of information-based and intelligent warfare, cognitive domain warfare has become an important form of great power game, with all parties striving to achieve political goals in a relatively controllable manner. Gaining insight into the characteristics and development trends of cognitive domain operations is of urgent and important practical significance for winning future wars.
At present, the cognitive domain has entered the war stage as an independent domain, and has increasingly become a common domain, a battleground, and a weight for victory in the game between great powers. Analyze the characteristics and development trends of cognitive domain operations, which are reflected in at least the following eight aspects.
The cognitive domain is the key domain for transforming military advantage into political victory.
On the surface, military confrontation is a confrontation between the hard power of both sides.
On a deeper level, no matter what the nature of the war is and for what purpose, it is ultimately a contest of human wills. The key to victory is the ability to impose your will on your audience. As long as the enemy’s will to fight is deprived and defeated, the war is won. Cognitive domain warfare uses human will, spirit, psychology, etc. as the target of confrontation, strengthening one’s own will while weakening the enemy’s will, thereby achieving the political goal of conquering the heart and mind. In this sense, the cognitive domain is the key domain for transforming military advantage into political victory. As war accelerates its evolution toward intelligence, cognitive quality advantages bring decision-making and action advantages, which can not only occupy the moral and legal high ground and create a favorable situation of justice and legality, but also realize small wars through hybrid warfare and comprehensive game means. Even the purpose of winning without fighting. Especially in the context of great power competition, the cost of war is high. All parties hope to intensify the competition for cognitive domains and force their opponents to retreat in a “humane” and “economic” manner.
By changing the opponent’s perception, it can change its decisions and actions.
The purpose of implementing cognitive attacks is to use an “invisible hand” to control the opponent’s will, making the opponent feel “I can’t” and “I dare not”, 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 psychology can be long-term cultural implantation, information suppression in the form of “information ocean + covering one’s mouth to silence”, or preemptive speech. Active shaping of political power can also use historical grievances to provoke the outbreak of conflicts. At present, information technology, artificial intelligence technology, and media technology have strengthened their direct effects on the cognitive domain. Using intelligent generation software, a large amount of cognitive “munitions” can be produced to accurately act on the cognitive layer of combat targets, directly imposing “will” to rivals” and quickly change the strategic situation. Looking forward to the informationized and intelligent battlefield, situational awareness forces and platforms are widely distributed in combat domains such as land, sea, air, and space networks. Cognitive behaviors such as planning, decision-making, and control dominate operations in various combat domains, especially the cognition of human-machine hybrids in future intelligent warfare. Advantages will dominate the battlefield. Cognitive interference, cognitive confusion, cognitive blocking and other means can be used to create a “fog” of war cognition, inducing opponents to misjudge the situation and make wrong decisions and actions.
Cognitive domain operations are full-time offense and defense, full personnel coverage, full use, full domain shaping, and full government action.
Cognitive domain operations are all-round, multi-level, hyper-temporal, and cross-domain. They blur the boundaries between wartime and peacetime, front and rear, cross battlefields and national boundaries, go beyond the pure military field, and widely penetrate into politics. , economy, diplomacy and other social fields, showing the characteristics of “five completes”. Full-time offense and defense, there is no distinction between peacetime and wartime, and there is no difference between the front and the rear. It is expressed as being online all the time and in war all the time. Covering all personnel, anyone, including intelligent robots, may become the target of cognitive domain operations. It is used throughout the whole process of joint operations before and during the war. Before the joint military operation is launched, the cognitive shaping operation has begun and will accompany the military operation and will not stop with the military operation. Global shaping, cognitive shaping runs through all levels of strategy, operations, and tactics, and its scope covers all domains of land, sea, air, and space networks. Cross-domain empowerment has an impact on all-domain operations. As a whole-of-government action, cognitive shaping is naturally strategic and requires consistent and coordinated actions across departments, fields, military and localities, and levels to achieve the best communication effect.
The key is to seize control over the right to define the nature of an action or activity, the right to dominate the process, and the right to judge the outcome.
The cognitive game struggle involves multiple opposing parties and seems complicated. The key is to compete for the “three powers” in the cognitive domain. First, fight for the right to define the nature of the event. That is, how to view this incident, whether it is just or unjust, legal or illegal. Usually, pre-emptive definitions, group alliances and forced definitions, information suppression and unilateral definitions, setting issues and applying definitions are usually adopted to guide and shape the public to form qualitative perceptions. Second, compete for dominance over the event process. That is, how to do something, how not to do it, who did it right and who did it wrong, usually by setting up a trap and other methods, trying to dominate the development direction of the target event according to the state that one’s own side expects. Fast and slow, pause, continue and end. Third, compete for the right to judge the outcome of the incident. That is, how to evaluate this matter, who is the gainer and who is the loser, who is the immediate loser, who is the long-term loser, etc. All parties are trying to control the outcome of the incident by amplifying the advantages to themselves and the disadvantages to the enemy. The purpose is to use the extended effect of the incident to continue to harm the enemy and benefit themselves.
Morality and legal principles are the focus of contention between all parties.
Military operations have always paid attention to the principle of “discipline and reputation”. Although the shape of war is evolving at an accelerated pace, the essential nature of war as subordinate to politics will not change; the nature of war and the support of people’s hearts are still the key factors that affect the outcome of a war. On the battlefield in the cognitive domain, by occupying the commanding heights of politics, morality, and law, we can win the hearts and minds of the people and moral support, create a public opinion atmosphere in which moral support is abundant, and then seize the opportunity to defeat the enemy. In every war or conflict, whether it is the strong or the weak, whether the attacker, the defender, or a third party, all parties will try their best to seize cognitive dominance and the initiative of public opinion. They will do everything possible to package themselves with morality, focus on declaring a just position, and try to find ways to defend themselves. Qualify the war, justify the action, eliminate resistance, increase support, and create a favorable situation in which “righteousness” defeats “unrighteousness”. The strength balance between the two sides in the war is different, and the cognitive confrontation methods aimed at occupying the moral and legal high ground will also be different. Recent wars have shown that when a party has strong soft and hard power, that is, it has strong military strength, many allies and partners, and a large share of international voice, it often declares war in a high-profile manner; when military actions may trigger chain reactions, it is often handled in a vague manner. The word “war”.
Information is the basic “ammunition” for cognitive attack and defense.
In the network information age, the way humans communicate continues to undergo complex and profound changes. On-site interactive interactions have gradually given way to online connections. Some large-scale social platforms have become the main battleground for cognitive games and the main channels for influencing public cognition. Using information as ammunition to fight for the right to block international networks and control discourse has become today’s norm. One of the main actions of confrontation. On these platforms, various short videos have become the “first scene” for the public to understand the war situation, and information travels faster than cannonballs. The use and blocking, dominance and regulation of platforms have become the focus of battles in the cognitive domain. All parties strive to spread and amplify their own propaganda, denounce and suppress the other party’s propaganda by manipulating social platforms, forming a “I say more, you say less” “A situation where “I’m right and you’re wrong” and “I can only say it and you’re not allowed to say it”. As users of large-scale social platforms, the public is influenced by and affects others in the process of “listening”, “speaking” and even “doing”, and unknowingly becomes the agents and attack props of those behind the scenes.
Military operations play a key supporting role in shaping cognition.
The history of human war shows that military warfare is always the basic support of political contests, while psychological warfare is the effectiveness multiplier of military warfare. What cannot be retrieved on the battlefield cannot be expected to be retrieved at the negotiation table, let alone in the field of public opinion. In modern warfare, cognitive-communication operations always go hand in hand with joint military operations. Mental warfare and military warfare influence and support each other. The trend of military warfare becoming mental warfare and mental warfare becoming military warfare is more obvious. From the perspective of war practice, it is impossible without military strength, but military actions alone are not omnipotent. Multiple victories on the battlefield are not a sufficient condition for victory in war. In the Vietnam War, although the United States “won every battle, it lost the entire war.” At the beginning of the 21st century, the United States fought successive wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, winning battlefield victories but not political victory. By the same token, military victory does not mean winning public opinion, and winning the battlefield does not mean winning strategic victory. In modern warfare, two types of people play an increasingly important role: those who win by writing thousands of lines of code, and those who win by writing thousands of messages. The side with superior quantity and quality of these two types of personnel will often have a higher probability of winning.
Cognitive countermeasures technology is increasingly used directly in warfare. In past wars, the influence and effect on the cognitive domain were mainly transmitted to the cognitive domain level by level through a large number of damaging actions in the physical domain. With the development and breakthroughs of information communications, artificial intelligence, biocrossing, brain science and other technologies, new cognitive warfare tools and technologies are directly targeting military personnel. Cognitive countermeasures use not only traditional information warfare weapons, but also an arsenal of neural weapons that target the brain. By then, machines will be able to read human brains, and human brains will also be able to directly control machines. Intelligent command and control systems can directly provide battlefield situation and decision-making assistance. Realistic cognitive ammunition and precise audience placement will greatly enhance the social impact. Cognitive countermeasures technology is increasingly being used directly in warfare. The indirect cognition implicit in informatization is gradually transforming into a direct influence and control of people’s cognition. It can be said that with the support of advanced technology, cognitive domain operations can achieve political goals more directly and efficiently by building a modern network architecture and developing a data visualization platform to quickly understand the information environment and effectively influence target groups.
Cognitive domain operations refer to using modern cognitive theory and science as a guide, using multi-domain means such as public opinion, psychology, and law, and using multi-dimensional technologies such as modern networks, media, text, pictures, videos, and numbers to carry out public opinion propaganda, psychological Attack and defense, fighting for people’s hearts, subverting confidence, influencing beliefs, fighting for thinking, and ideological struggle are important forms of fighting for people’s initiative in thinking, beliefs, values, personal attitudes, emotions, identification and judgment tendencies. Cognitive domain warfare is a complex collection of multi-domain warfare such as traditional public opinion warfare, psychological warfare, legal warfare, trade war, diplomatic warfare, technological warfare, and ideological warfare.
At present, cognitive domain operations have become an important basis for countries to carry out military struggles and struggles in other fields. Language confrontation driven by cognitive domain goals has become an important form of cognitive domain operations and deserves great attention.
A new area where language confrontation exerts influence on combat targets
Cognitive domain operations are an accompanying result of the development of contemporary cognitive science research. It is an emerging combat field that emerged after people actively explored the cognitive activities of the brain to gain a more complex, abstract, and thorough understanding of the brain. It is also a language confrontation. A high-end form of influence that targets the advanced and deep hidden activities of the audience’s brain. Regardless of whether it is the object of information, the producer of information, the information content itself or the channel of information, cognitive domain operations all run through the characteristics of cognition, and highlight the cognitive level from beginning to end.
From the perspective of the recipients of the information, this cognition targets the deep cognitive aspects of the brains of the opponent’s audience, including its people, the military, military commanders or important leaders, important figures in the political and business circles, and even directly including the opponent’s country leaders or leaders. Specific important generals of the army, etc., can also be specific groups of people or the public. It can involve cognitive preferences, cognitive shortcomings, cognitive habits, cognitive biases, and cognitive misunderstandings of individuals or groups; it can also involve beliefs, values, political identities, national identities, and social and cultural identities of individuals and groups. and emotional attitudes.
From the perspective of the sender and content of information, it should be infused with the cognitive design and arrangement of the information producer. This includes the unique cognition of the text, such as the discourse mode of the text, the narrative mode of the text, the observation perspective of things, The cognitive focus and depth of the narrative, the organizational form of the sentence, the value and other tendencies of the sentence, the acceptability of the concept of the sentence, etc.
In terms of the channels through which information is sent and disseminated, the form of text is closer to multimedia and multimodal forms, closer to the needs of cyberspace, closer to the advantages of contemporary smartphones, and closer to the characteristics of the current emerging media era, which means it is more in line with the audience. Cognitive characteristics of acceptance: cognitive habits and cognitive tendencies. The communication form of the text fully considers the cognitive effects in international communication, especially cross-cultural, cross-language, cross-media, and cross-group cognitive communication. In this way, the text will better influence the audience from a cognitive level.
Language confrontation generates new tactics in response to changes in combat styles
Throughout human history, it is not difficult to find that the patterns of military struggle have been constantly changing. From the initial physical struggle with the help of cold weapons, it has developed into a contest of mechanical power with hot weapons, and then into the checks and balances of information capabilities under high-tech war conditions. In recent years, it has also moved towards intelligent decision-making in the direction of intelligence and unmanned operations. Competition develops, and every change brings profound changes in tactics. In the current transitional stage of mechanized, informatized and intelligent coexistence, people not only pay attention to the struggle for dominance in the physical domain and information domain of the battlefield, but also pay more attention to the control of the cognitive domain that affects the main body of the war, that is, the way of thinking of the personnel on both sides of the war. , cognitive models and styles, values, emotional attitudes, cultural models, communication models, psychological strengths and weaknesses, cognitive preferences, cultural and knowledge maps, ideological identity and other fields of competition. The latter involves social personnel and the basic situation of social existence, which is the emerging field where cognitive domain operations have an impact, and its tactics have strong particularities.
Flexibility of issues: Cognitive domain operations can select many issues in the cognitive domain and carry out flexible combat operations. Depending on the current situation and needs, the topic can be selected to involve either a relatively macro strategic level (such as the ideology and system of the other party’s entire society, etc.), or a meso-level operational level (such as social issues in local areas or directions of the other party’s society: Social welfare policy or environmental protection policy, etc.), you can also choose to involve very micro tactical issues in society (such as the unfair, unjust, and unbeautiful side of society reflected by a certain person or a specific event). Issues in the macro, meso, and micro cognitive domains are interconnected and transform into each other. It is very likely that a micro issue will also become a major macro strategic issue. The question raised must be considered in relation to the entire military operation, and cognitive domain operations must be subordinated to the overall combat operations and serve the needs of the macro-political and diplomatic overall situation. What’s more important is that topics should be prepared in normal times and data on various topics should be collected in normal times, especially paying attention to various important data in real society. Once needed, these data can be quickly transformed into arrows, bullets, and artillery shells fired into the enemy’s cognitive domain, and even become strategic weapons that affect the overall situation.
Combat-level controllability: The important design of cognitive operations is that at the operational level, the overall system can be controlled and regulated, and corresponding upgrades or dimensionality reductions can be made according to changes in the situation. If the strategic level is needed, commanders can activate the design and force investment at the strategic level; if the operational level is needed, it can also be controlled at the corresponding campaign level; if it is only needed at the level of specific small issues, it can also be controlled at the corresponding level. The niche local level enables the entire operation to serve the needs of overall combat operations. The strategies, battles and tactics here refer more to combat design and force investment. Since the battlefield situation may change rapidly, some issues may also change at the level, from strategic issues to affect campaign and tactical-level effects; some issues, due to the particularity of tactical issues, become campaign-strategic issues that affect the overall situation.
Dominance of emerging media: The main channel of influence in the cognitive domain has shifted from traditional paper media and print media to emerging media. Traditional media mainly rely on a single medium, such as newspapers, magazines, books, flyers, posters, etc. to convey information; the later emergence of television brought about three-dimensional media. In the Internet era, especially the Internet 2.0 era and the birth of smart communication devices, people rely more on multi-media, multi-modal, short videos and short texts to convey information. The introduction of various advanced devices such as smart phones, smart tablets, and smart players, as well as the birth of various emerging social software and tools, have made emerging media the main tool for people to communicate and communicate. Emerging media, emerging social software and tools have become an important space for various forces to compete and fight in social security, public opinion security, ideological security, social security and political security. Internet security, especially the ability to grasp the security of new social media, emerging social software and tools, etc., is to some extent the key to the security of a country’s cognitive domain. Information from emerging media tools and new media spaces has become the main battlefield, main position and main contested space for cognitive operations in various countries. It is worth pointing out that the ideas and theories that influence people’s cognition will become the most influential weapons at all levels of cognitive domain warfare.
Language confrontation adapts to the intelligent era, cognitive computing enhances new computing power
In the era of artificial intelligence, based on the significant improvements in big data analysis and application, super computing power, intelligent computing power, natural language processing power, smartphone communication capabilities, and new generation network communication capabilities, humans have begun to be able to control the entire society and the entire network. Conduct accurate modeling and analysis of language, culture, psychological cognition, group emotions, and social behavior across domains, local groups, different local groups, and specific individuals. In particular, people’s profound understanding and grasp of brain cognition, human brain thinking, thinking patterns, habits and preferences, image schemas, cognitive frameworks, and even neural networks, human-computer collaboration, brain control technology, etc., as long as there are sufficiently diverse With dynamic data, people can calculate and simulate all people’s psychological activities, emotional activities, cognitive activities, social opinions, and behavioral patterns. Through deep calculation, actuarial calculation, and clever calculation, we can accurately grasp people’s cognitive world and form Delicate and profound control over people’s cognitive domains. This aspect also presents the following characteristics:
Comprehensive dimensionality of computing: As an emerging field, all aspects involved in the cognitive domain can be digitized and made fully computable across all processes and individuals. It can collect various types of information extensively and sort out the information, which can then be reflected as Big data about the diversified main factors of combat opponents can be used to carry out various calculations for the whole, groups, between groups, and individual data and between them. Therefore, based on thinking, psychology, emotion, and speech, which has not been possible in the past, Various activities in terms of activities, behaviors, etc. can be completed, displayed and accurately grasped through calculation.
Cognitiveness of computing: Computing in the cognitive domain embodies strong cognition. It can reveal more connections between various things, events, and people that are difficult to observe with the naked eye, and can reveal the same event framework. The clustering and hierarchical relationships between various concepts in the text reflect the explicit or implicit, direct or indirect deep cognitive connections between concepts, reveal the complex conceptual network system between concepts, and enable people to see completely beyond the ordinary naked eye. The deep cognitive world of observation.
Computing intelligence: Computing in the cognitive domain also reflects strong intelligence. This kind of intelligence is manifested in drawing intelligent conclusions through calculation. For example, through large-scale text collection and data mining, we can find the relationships between various topics, various opinions, various tendencies, various groups of people, various positions, and various demands that cannot be seen due to limited human power, and form a comparison. A more comprehensive, in-depth, accurate and systematic understanding of a certain problem to make scientifically optimized decisions. This kind of decision-making may be consistent with human intelligence, or it may exceed or even far exceed human intelligence. By making good use of the power of cognitive computing, especially by integrating the data of one’s own country and that of opponents, one can better prevent, warn, and deploy in advance, and achieve the best, fastest, and most accurate strikes and counterattacks. , and can also better reflect efficient, powerful and targeted protection. Cognitive computing here is more about a possible macro, meso or micro issue in different groups of people, different time periods, and different backgrounds, in the entire network domain or a certain local network domain, or within a specific group. The repercussions generated, especially the analysis and examination of the active and passive situations that both parties may present when playing games with opponents, and the attack and defense of the cognitive domain, etc.
Give full play to the subject position of discourse and release the new application of discourse power
Cognitive domain operations have a very important support, that is, they mainly rely on language media to exert their effects, mainly exerting influence through the discourse level, mainly through the narrative nature of discourse to form a hidden effect on the cognitive domain, and mainly through cultural models. To exert a potential effect, exert an explicit or implicit effect through cross-cultural communication. It is mainly reflected in the following aspects:
Uniqueness of textual discourse: The cognitive domain requires the use of information to exert influence. Although information may rely on the special visual effects of video images to be presented, fundamentally speaking, the uniqueness of the discourse synthesized by the text becomes the main basis for cognitive impact. Among them, the mode of discourse expression, the skills of discourse expression, the main design of the persuasiveness and appeal of discourse expression, especially the uniqueness of discourse narrative will be the key to affecting people’s cognition. This may include the perspective of the narrative, the theme and style of the narrative, the story frame of the narrative, the language innovation of the narrative, the key sentences of the narrative, the philosophy, humanities, religion, society, nature and other feelings contained in the narrative, and the identities of the different participants in the narrative. , the diversified evaluation of narratives, the authenticity, depth and emotional temperature of narratives, the subtle influence of narratives on opinions, the personal emotions, values, ideologies, and standpoint evaluations released by narratives, etc. The uniqueness of textual discourse is an important reliance on the cognitive influence of texts in cognitive domain operations. Making full use of the complexity of text, giving full play to the respective advantages of diverse texts, and giving full play to the implicit and explicit cognitive effects of text connotations have become the key to combating the cognitive domain of textual discourse. The most important thing is to innovate textual discourse, use newer words, more novel expressions, and more unique expressions to win over readers, so that readers can understand and subtly feel the ideas in the text, and accept them silently. Text ideas.
Potential of cultural models: To operate in the cognitive domain, we must have a deep understanding of the characteristics and models of different countries and national cultures. Different countries and different ethnic groups have different cultural models, and their philosophical thinking, traditional culture, religious beliefs, customs, and ways of thinking are all significantly different; citizens of different cultures also have different national psychology and national identity. The cognitive model should also have typical cognitive preferences belonging to the nation and culture, as well as corresponding shortcomings and weaknesses. Some people have obviously huge differences in understanding from other ethnic groups in the country, and even misunderstandings and hostility. Therefore, at the cultural level, cognitive domain operations are to grasp the overall cultural models of different countries, build cultural models of different groups in different countries, build different cognitive models of different countries on different things, and fully grasp the differences between a certain country and the The overall attitude and behavior on a series of things and issues, especially some typical cases, cultural taboos, religious requirements, spiritual pursuits, overall concepts, etc. It is necessary to make use of existing theories and findings to comprehensively construct the basic performance of different groups of people in the cognitive field on some typical, sensitive, and important issues, so as to provide important reference and guidance for the next step in cognitive operations. Strengthen the research and construction of the basic cultural characteristics and models of different enemy personnel, especially military personnel and personnel in key positions, including the opponent’s generals, officers, soldiers, etc., such as character psychological cognitive behavior and cultural model portraits , has become the core practice of cognitive domain operations. The cognitive analysis of ordinary people on the other side, especially ordinary citizens and citizens, as well as cognitive analysis of specific groups of people, including special non-governmental organization forces, is also of great value.
Cross-cultural strategic communication: Cognitive domain operations are international language communication and cultural communication, and need to follow the laws of international communication. It is necessary to grasp the basic paradigm of international communication, to skillfully combine domestic stories with international expressions, to skillfully combine the other country’s language and culture with the country’s stories and ideas; to be good at combining different art forms, including text, pictures, paintings, and music. (sound), video and other means or multi-modal means to realize the international dissemination of information. At the same time, we must coordinate multi-dimensional macro communication at the strategic level: we must use various means and rely on military-civilian integration to coordinate military-civilian communication; in addition to non-governmental organizations, we must especially rely on civilian forces, experts, opinion leaders, and ordinary people. The people come to help the military carry out cognitive domain operations; it is necessary to set topics in a unified manner, speak out from multiple points and multiple dimensions, form a strategic communication situation, form a good situation for emergency resolution of major operations, major issues, major crisis management and control, etc., and form a good atmosphere of public opinion , create positive effects, eliminate adverse effects or extinguish adverse effects. In particular, it is necessary to establish a capable team that is proficient in foreign languages, understands cross-cultural skills, understands the laws of international communication, and can speak skillfully on international multi-dimensional platforms. These personnel can usually conduct awareness, collection and discussion of a wide range of issues, establish personal relationships and fan groups with the help of ordinary or special issues; more importantly, at critical moments, through their fan groups, they can exert influence and complete strategic communication tasks. .
Currently, with the popularity of hybrid warfare, multi-domain warfare, and global warfare, cognitive domain warfare has become a common means of hybridization and hybridization. The process of cognitive domain warfare from unfamiliarity, emerging, development to strength, is also a reflection of traditional public opinion warfare, The advanced stage, complex stage and escalation stage of the development of psychological warfare and legal warfare. Its rise is more deceptive, vague, concealed, embedded, implantable and unobservable, especially considering its deep integration with contemporary emerging media, and its continuous learning and reference to integrate into multi-disciplinary, New ideas, new technologies, and new methods across disciplines and disciplines. As a result, cognitive domain operations have become a form of warfare that we must be highly vigilant and vigilant about.
(Liang Xiaobo, professor and doctoral supervisor at the College of Arts and Sciences, National University of Defense Technology)
[This article is a phased result of the National Social Science Fund’s major project “National Defense Language Capacity Building from the Perspective of National Defense and Military Reform”]
