Chinese Military Insight into the Evolution of Cognitive Warfare

中國軍事對認知戰演變的洞察

國語翻譯:

Cognition is the process by which people acquire, process and apply information and knowledge. At present, the cognitive domain has gradually become a new battlefield for competition, and cognitive warfare has gradually received attention from all countries. With the development of the scientific and technological revolution and the expansion of war practice, cognitive warfare is showing an accelerating evolution trend.

Cognitive technology is becoming the basic driving force of the evolution of war. Technology changes the form of war and also changes the way of cognitive warfare. If the large-scale popularization of information networks has promoted the information domain to become a combat domain, and the exponential growth of data and network scale is a sign of the maturity of the information domain, then the large-scale application of cognitive technology and the continuous iterative development of cognitive technology will become a sign of the maturity of cognitive warfare. In the future, technologies in cognitive environment, cognitive perception, cognitive control, artificial intelligence, etc. will reflect the transformative impact that cognitive technology may have on social cognitive confrontation and military cognitive confrontation. Human beings are entering the era of universal communication. The global cyberspace is being highly linked. The network has become a combat space for comprehensive game between state actors and non-state actors. The contention and war of communication have become part of the high-intensity military action level. At present, major countries in the world have laid out the frontier of cognitive technology and carried out cognitive technology competitions. Through modeling and analysis, they seek to penetrate and control the human brain network, information network and social network; through deep calculation, actuarial calculation, and clever calculation, they aim to maximize the control of people’s cognitive world and cognitive domain.

The cognitive domain is becoming an important battlefield in hybrid warfare. In the intelligent era, the way humans communicate is undergoing complex and profound changes. Offline communication is giving way to online communication. Various new media platforms have become the main channels for the public to understand the battlefield, and large social platforms have become the main battlefield for cognitive game struggles. Therefore, the combat domain of future wars will continue to expand. The space domain will expand from land, sea, air, and space networks to deep space, deep sea, and deep earth, while the logic domain will expand from the physical domain to the information domain and cognitive domain. War is no longer limited to the physical threats of traditional wars, but is turning to the social consciousness threats brought about by mass media and technological progress. Blockade and anti-blockade, dominance and anti-domination around communication platforms will become the focus of cognitive warfare, and the struggle for international discourse control using information as ammunition has become the main way of cognitive confrontation today. From the perspective of hybrid warfare, ideological propaganda and indoctrination, the penetration of values ​​and culture, traditional public opinion psychology and legal offense and defense, and information network warfare have all become important aspects of cognitive warfare. Hybrid warfare can achieve the goal of small-scale war or even victory without fighting through comprehensive game means such as cognitive warfare. The offense and defense in the cognitive field will be an uninterrupted and normalized struggle, and combat effectiveness will continue to accumulate and be gradually released.

Cognitive advantage is becoming a winning advantage in high-end warfare. Freedom of action in war is the lifeblood of the military. From the cognitive dimension, the deeper the understanding of the battlefield environment and combat opponents, the freer the action and the greater the relative advantage. However, with the exponential growth of combat data in war, commanders are beginning to face the cognitive dilemma of data swamp, data fog, and data overload. Having information advantage does not mean having cognitive advantage. An important military application direction of artificial intelligence technology is to process massive data in real time, help commanders get rid of cognitive overload, and quickly form cognitive advantages. In intelligent warfare, cognitive advantage will dominate decision-making advantage, and decision-making advantage will dominate action advantage. Cognitive advantage has four key indicators: stronger information acquisition ability, faster artificial intelligence machine learning speed, more effective emergency handling ability, and higher ability to develop and apply new technologies and new knowledge. For example, public opinion warfare with data-driven intelligent communication as its new feature has been highly coordinated and integrated with traditional military operations. This virtual-real integrated combat style has stronger combat effectiveness than simple military operations, which has fundamentally changed the traditional combat methods. The linkage and superposition of cognitive advantages will accelerate the transformation of combat effectiveness and become a fundamental advantage for winning wars.

Cognitive theory is becoming the forefront of the game of winning wars. Cognitive warfare is a combination of soft power and hard power, and is an important factor affecting national security in today’s era. At present, the competition for penetration and counter-penetration, attack and counter-attack, control and counter-control in cognitive space is fierce. Cognitive science theory is entering the military field. Concepts such as cognitive load, cognitive enhancement, cognitive immunity, and cognitive subversion have appeared frequently in the field of foreign cognitive warfare research. Foreign militaries believe that the cognitive domain is the “sixth combat domain” of human warfare, the core of the “intertwined conflict domain” in the era of great power competition, and an important direction for future military theory innovation. Obviously, cognitive warfare has become the strategic commanding heights for winning future wars, cognitive theory has become the frontier of theoretical innovation, and cognitive technology will accelerate the advancement of cognitive warfare to become an important “trigger point” for the intelligent military revolution. Since new technologies, new theories, and new styles of cognitive warfare are in the process of accelerated incubation, perhaps future wars will present a surprising new situation.

繁體中文:

認知是人們獲得、加工及應用資訊和知識的過程。當前,認知域逐漸成為角逐的新戰場,認知戰也逐漸受到各國重視。隨著科技革命的發展和戰爭實踐的拓展,認知戰正呈現加速演變趨勢。

認知科技正成為戰爭演進的基本動力。科技改變戰爭形態,也改變認知戰方式。如果資訊網路的大規模普及,推動了資訊域成為作戰域,資料和網路規模的指數級增長是資訊域成熟的標誌,那麼認知科技的大規模應用,認知技術不斷迭代發展,將成為推動認知戰成熟的標誌。未來認知環境、認知感知、認知控制、人工智慧等方面技術,將折射出認知技術對社會認知對抗、軍事認知對抗可能產生的變革性影響。人類正進入全民傳播時代,全球網路空間正納入高度連動,網路已成為國家行為體和非國家行為體全面博弈的作戰空間,傳播之爭和傳播之戰已成為高烈度軍事行動層面的一部分。當前世界主要國家紛紛佈局認知技術前沿,開展認知技術競賽,透過建模和分析,謀求滲透控制人腦網絡、資訊網絡和社會網絡;透過深算、精算、妙算等,旨在最大限度把握人們的認知世界和認知域的控制權。

認知領域正成為混合戰爭的重要戰場。智慧時代,人類溝通方式正發生複雜深刻變化。離線交流更多讓位於線上交流,各種新媒體平台成為大眾了解戰場的主要管道,大型社群平台成為認知博弈鬥爭的主陣地。因此,未來戰爭的作戰域將不斷拓展,空間域從陸海空天網向深空、深海、深地拓展,而邏輯域則從物理域向資訊域、認知域拓展。戰爭不再侷限於傳統戰爭的實體威脅,而是轉向大眾媒體、科技進步所帶來的社會意識威脅。圍繞傳播平台的封鎖與反封鎖、主導與反主導將成為認知戰爭奪的焦點,以資訊為彈藥進行國際話語控制權爭奪成為當今認知對抗的主要方式。在混合戰爭視角下,意識形態宣傳與灌輸、價值觀與文化的滲透、傳統的輿論心理與法律攻防與資訊網絡戰等,都成為認知戰的重要面向。混合戰爭可透過認知戰等綜合賽局手段,實現小戰甚至不戰而勝的目的,而認知領域攻防將是一場不間斷的、常態化的鬥爭,作戰效能也將持續累積、逐步釋放。

認知優勢正成為高端戰爭的勝利優勢。戰爭行動自由是軍隊的命脈。從認知維度來看,對戰場環境、作戰對手認知越深,行動越自由,相對優勢就越大。但隨著戰爭中作戰資料指數級成長,指揮人員開始面臨資料沼澤、資料迷霧、資料過載的認知困境,擁有資訊優勢並不等於擁有認知優勢。人工智慧技術的一個重要軍事應用方向,就是即時處理大量數據,幫助指揮人員擺脫認知過載,快速形成認知優勢。在智慧化戰爭中,認知優勢將主導決策優勢,決策優勢主導行動優勢。認知優勢有4個關鍵指標:更強的資訊取得能力、更快的人工智慧機器學習速度、更有效的突發事件處理能力和更高的開發應用新技術新知識的能力。例如,以數據驅動的智慧傳播為新特徵的輿論戰與傳統軍事行動已經高度協同與融合,這種虛實一體的作戰樣式具備了比單純軍事行動更強的作戰效能,使傳統作戰方式發生根本性改變。認知優勢的連動與疊加,將加速推進作戰效能轉化,成為戰爭制勝的根本優勢。

認知理論正成為打贏戰爭的博弈前線。認知戰是軟實力和硬實力的結合,也是當今時代影響國家安全的重要因素。目前,認知空間的滲透與逆滲透、攻擊與反攻擊、控制與反控制的爭奪激烈,認知科學理論正進入軍事領域,認知負荷、認知增強、認知免疫、認知顛覆等概念,已高頻度出現於國外認知戰研究領域。外軍認為,認知域是人類戰爭的“第六作戰域”,是大國競爭時代“交織的衝突領域”中的核心,是未來軍事理論創新的重要方向。顯然,認知戰已成為贏得未來戰爭的戰略制高點,認知理論已成為理論創新前沿領域,認知科技將加速推進認知戰成為智慧化軍事革命的重要「引爆點」。由於認知戰的新技術、新理論、新樣式正處於加速孵化之中,也許未來戰爭將會呈現出令人驚詬的全新景況。

中國軍事資料來源:http://www.81.cn/jfjbmap/content/2022-09/29/content_32588.htm

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *