The Mind Has No Firewall
Creators: name: TeabeAmet, LuureAmet
Publisher: name: figshare
Year: 2023
Subjects: Philosophy of mind (excl. cognition)
Defence studies
Receptors and membrane biology
Psychiatry (incl. psychotherapy)
Educational psychology

description: <strong>Cyberskepticism: The Mind's Firewall</strong> By Timothy L. Thomas <br> From Parameters, Spring 1998, pp. 84-92. <br> "It is completely clear that the state which is first to create such weapons will achieve <br> incomparable superiority." — Major I. Chernishev, Russian army <br> https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/citations/ADA494346 This article explains the context within which cyber deception has fermented. It then offers several examples of the forms that cyber deception has taken in recent years. Topics discussed include social engineering, the internet -- a fertile playing field, cyber deception from an unlikely and trusted source, cyber linking the virtual world with the real world especially romance, cyber deceptive visitors, cyber deceptive RFID tags, cyber deception to breach firewalls, cyber deceptive advertising, cyber deception techniques of a hacker, cyber phishing, cyber deception and hoaxbusters, cyber deception by insurgents, cyber address book harvesting, and cyber deception by the Russian military via reflexive control. The bottom line be a cyberskeptic. Only in this way can one erect an effective cognitive defense against the many forms of cyber deception. The mind has no firewall except skepticism. <br> -- <br> <br> https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28813371 If you haven't read the article read it, don't just read the title. I have no idea if this is the type of thing they put as reading material in toilets in the pentagon (which I fully support if they also regularly run out of toilet paper) or if this is what top level intelligence analysis is. If it's the former the West is doomed: &gt;The term "psycho-terrorism" was coined by Russian writer N. Anisimov of the Moscow Anti-Psychotronic Center. According to Anisimov, psychotronic weapons are those that act to "take away a part of the information which is stored in a man's brain. It is sent to a computer, which reworks it to the level needed for those who need to control the man, and the modified information is then reinserted into the brain." These weapons are used against the mind to induce hallucinations, sickness, mutations in human cells, "zombification," or even death. Included in the arsenal are VHF generators, X-rays, ultrasound, and radio waves. Russian army Major I. Chernishev, writing in the military journal Orienteer in February 1997, asserted that "psy" weapons are under development all over the globe. At the time the Russian Armies largest concern was getting enough socks for it's conscripts in Chechnya. I would expect to read material of this quality on the 4chan conspiracy board or maybe infowars if it's a slow newsday, not in official US government documentation. ---------- <br> <br> For a more serious, non-fiction take, I find this article by Nick Bostron on Information Hazards and their typology a quite interesting read too: https://nickbostrom.com/information-hazards.pdf <br> -- &gt;What technologies have been examined by the United States that possess the potential to disrupt the data-processing capabilities of the human organism? The 7 July 1997 issue of U.S. News and World Report described several of them designed, among other things, to vibrate the insides of humans, stun or nauseate them, put them to sleep, heat them up, or knock them down with a shock wave. The technologies include dazzling lasers that can force the pupils to close; acoustic or sonic frequencies that cause the hair cells in the inner ear to vibrate and cause motion sickness, vertigo, and nausea, or frequencies that resonate the internal organs causing pain and spasms; and shock waves with the potential to knock down humans or airplanes and which can be mixed with pepper spray or chemicals.[10] It literally isn't. This is the equivalent of attacking a network switch by running main power into the Ethernet ports. I have no idea why they are using the word firewall here, a much better title would be 'Human senses have no fuses'. &gt;&gt;According to Solntsev, one computer virus capable of affecting a person's psyche is Russian Virus 666. It manifests itself in every 25th frame of a visual display, where it produces a combination of colors that allegedly put computer operators into a trance. The subconscious perception of the new pattern eventually results in arrhythmia of the heart. Other Russian computer specialists, not just Solntsev, talk openly about this "25th frame effect" and its ability to subtly manage a computer user's perceptions. The purpose of this technique is to inject a thought into the viewer's subconscious. It may remind some of the subliminal advertising controversy in the United States in the late 1950s. The whole thing reads like the National Enquirer but for spooks. I seriously hope that this is not the level of discourse in the military and 3 letter agencies (but expect it is with dread) because we'd be better served by a troop of chimps flinging shit at a chart when it comes to deciding what new technologies to finance. At least it makes the last 5 years of insanity around Russia, Trump, Facebook and everything else we are having a moral panic over seem sane by comparison. --- <br> Probably more relevant than Roko's Basilisk is David Langford's story "comp.basilisk FAQ". https://www.nature.com/articles/44964 While reading this I've checked the URL (more than once) to be sure I'm really reading a Nature article. I've checked even the TLS certificate of the site after some while. It has a working DOI, it's form Nature. But it could be something written by an Anon on 4Chan actually! Still not sure what this is, and why it's in Nature. Do they occasionally publish jokes? ---- <em>Snow Crash plays with the idea of brain exploits using specially constructed sounds.</em> Images: * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snow_Crash <br> --- energy pulse weapons that affect mental state, like the ones rumored in Cuba not so long ago do exist or have existed since the 90s. " I do tend to believe the ones that are going against the heavily pushed story, especially if they are in support of the null hypothesis (no one was attacking American diplomats with woo woo energy weapons). " -- https://books.google.ee/books?id=vAsAAAAAMBAJ&amp;pg=PA11&amp;lpg=PA11&amp;dq=black+widow+pulse+weapon&amp;source=bl&amp;ots=L-aQvX3uO3&amp;sig=ACfU3U2ED8fBewG5FUz49AAiMTNpeWeeQg&amp;hl=en&amp;sa=X&amp;redir_esc=y#v=onepage&amp;q=black widow pulse weapon&amp;f=false <br> -- <br> <em>Military Memetics</em>. From their website: "The initial focus is to establish a scientific basis for memetics in order to predict and control memes and their effects.... The attempt to establish a scientific basis for memetics is critically important. For example, within a suitable memetics framework could be the means to prevent irrational conflict and promote rational solutions to endemic national and international problems. Of course, without safeguards memetics can become a double-edged sword." your judgement to determine whether the announcement of the EATR project and its subsequent online reaction were a legitimate DARPA robotics research announcement, or alternatively just a bit of practical military memetics research.... ARG marketing campaign. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energetically_Autonomous_Tactical_Robot <br> --- <br> "common scripts":: - Solipsism: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solipsism - Gish Gallop: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gish_gallop - Sealioning/JAQing off: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sealioning - /r/iamverysmart (a person trying very hard to look smart) https://www.reddit.com/r/iamverysmart/ - Ad Hominem: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ad_hominem - Pedantry/Over-thinking: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedant - Lol: https://lindsayannlearning.com/rhetoric-in-social-media/ <br> http://www.ipcs.org/comm_select.php?articleNo=322 <br>