The driver of interstate political processes today, without exaggeration, can be called information wars, which are based on the manipulation of our consciousness. But few people think that modern sellers, imposing another purchase on us, are taking part in the creation of modern weapons based on the use of psychotechnology.
Information attacks
The history of mankind, in fact, is in no small measure the history of wars. And "hot" wars have always been accompanied by attempts to frighten, disorient and demotivate the enemy in advance by influencing his consciousness. This was the prototype of the modern information war.
Many researchers believe that it is inappropriate to use the term "information war", since war implies victims, and in this situation we can talk about the impact on the minds of people and their way of thinking. But it has long been no secret that a person is an integral being, and what happens in his head directly affects the state of his body and the quality of life. And information attacks, especially long-term ones, are a tool ultimately aimed at destroying identity, which, in fact, leads to self-destruction of a person and society.
The most striking example of such an influence of information attacks on the fate of an entire state is the collapse of the Soviet Union, where the destruction of the identity of the "Soviet man" led to a colossal surge in mortality from exacerbation of psychosomatic diseases and self-destructive behavior (alcohol, drugs, etc.)
Behavior war
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The information attacks that we are witnessing on a daily basis are aimed at the first stage of impact on changing the attitude of society towards something in a plan favorable to the enemy. But the process tends to further develop and the emphasis is already placed not so much on changing attitudes, but on the resulting change in the behavior of members of society.
This type of confrontation has even received its own name - behaviorist war. It is based on manipulation technologies, old as the world. And the trend of our super-technological time lies in the truly all-encompassing knowledge about a person: his psychological characteristics, profession, income, interests, purchases, bad habits, desires, etc. All this knowledge, easily accessible with appropriate technical support, makes our management easier.
Behavior programming
Behavioral weapons that have already been developed are based on a technology called nudge (nudge). Using our habits and stereotypes and by creating certain situations, each of us, or even the vast majority of our society, can be encouraged to make certain decisions and take specific actions based on them. Actions that are obviously beneficial not to us, but to the one who "encourages". In fact, we are talking about a new programming technology and external control of human behavior.
The permanent political instability of individual states, which is already accepted by our world as a kind of norm, in fact, may well indicate the use of behavioral weapons against the societies of these countries - with a clear purpose.
Ignoring the problem
The most interesting thing is that almost any reference to the topic of behavioral wars is usually presented by the media as another conspiracy theory. This automatically, in the eyes of the public, equates the topic with visits to the earth by aliens or meetings with the Yeti, forcing a significant part of information consumers to simply dismiss this problem. And this is also an effective instrument of the ongoing information war.
Meanwhile, many techniques of information warfare are being tested first in the commercial sector. In other words, if you have ever bought a thing that is unnecessary with common sense or made a purchase without reasonable consideration of your financial capabilities, congratulations: you have become a victim of military research.
Big data
Thanks to the introduction of new technologies, the possibilities for managing human behavior are growing every year. In the modern language of information technology, the term “big data” has appeared - these are tools and methods for processing and using huge amounts of information of various origins. By collecting and organizing this information, the interested party receives information about you that you yourself may not even suspect. Drawing up a detailed behavioral portrait of the consumer and his family for large companies has already become an urgent need and is presented as caring for you. As a result, you receive messages surprisingly on time about medications that you constantly use, vitamins for pregnant women and products for newborns, if you are expecting a baby, advertisements for sports clubs,if in any of them your subscription ends. That is, you are imperceptibly and neatly pushed to make purchases, and the effect of such actions is tens of percent of the growth of the companies' trade turnover.
Social networks, our payments via the Internet, any actions that enter the network, together with skillful processing, give a detailed picture of your life. Influencing the behavior of any person with such a dataset is not such a difficult task. You just need to separate the usual behavior from the triggers that trigger it, and replace these triggers with those that can be easily reproduced by the customer of the behavioral attack. And now a lot of people are starting to reproduce behavioral patterns in the direction necessary for the customer …
Protect myself
In this light, the law on the protection of personal data no longer looks like an annoying hindrance, forcing us to make a lot of additional gestures, but an urgent need in protecting national security.
However, as you know, the rescue of drowning people is mainly the work of the drowning people themselves. The obvious priority is filtering information about you on the network, and a critical attitude towards any information that gets to you from the network. If you are shopping or watching the news, turn off emotions and turn on your mind. Your reaction to any stimulus should depend on the answer to a simple question: who benefits from it? Are you sure?
Natalia Krasovskaya