Month: August 2020

Apocalypse Now

Science fiction has always been an outlet for our greatest anxieties. How the genre is exploring the reality of climate change. Plus: new words to describe the indescribable.

LINK: https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/otm/segments

‘I get censored four or five times a year’: Paul McCarthy, art’s virtuoso of vile

From inflatable excrement to a porn James Dean, McCarthy has delved into America’s dark side. But has reality finally overtaken his ketchup-smeared visions of corruption?

LINK: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2020/aug/04/paul-mccarthy-artist-america-alpine-stories

ONE TYPE OF ART CAN HELP YOU SEE THE BIGGER PICTURE IN LIFE – STUDY

“Something as fluid as enjoying art has demonstrable and measurable effects on how our mind works.”

STARING INTO THE SOOTHING LINES OF AN IMAGE THAT YOU CAN’T QUITE DESCRIBE is one of the joys of looking at abstract art. It turns out that it’s also one of the style’s major benefits. New research suggests that abstract art has qualities that can literally change our mindsets, and prompt us to let the minutia of day-to-day life fall away.

LINK: https://www.inverse.com/mind-body/abstract-art-mindset-study

A Five-Point Strategy to Oppose Russian Narrative Warfare

We don’t give a damn about the politics of all this Russian hand waving, we rather, present this as a learning opportunity regarding Narrative Warfare Tactics. 

This paper is intentionally written in narrative form rather than the usual linear strategy format. We are after all, talking about narrative warfare. It is also written as plain-spoken as possible so that everyone from policy-makers and national security strategy professionals through well-informed citizens can follow the discussion.

 

LINK: https://medium.com/@paulcobaugh/a-five-point-strategy-to-oppose-russian-narrative-warfare-56e0006aab2a

Emergent Threat Posed by Super-Empowered Individuals

“… in calling Moriarty a criminal you are uttering libel in the eyes of the law, and there lies the glory and the wonder of it! The greatest schemer of all time, the organizer of every devilry, the controlling brain of the underworld — a brain which might have made or marred the destiny of nations. That’s the man!” Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes, describing his arch nemesis, Professor James Moriarty, in The Valley of Fear, published in 1914.

In Professor Moriarty, Conan Doyle created the prototypical Super-Empowered Individual (SEI). Today’s SEIs — far from being fictional characters crafted to entertain readers from a gentler era — are real world, non-state actors that have been empowered by the on-going digital revolution, and are able to target and adversely affect the lives of millions around the globe. Mad Scientists addressed the threat posed by SEIs at the Visualizing Multi Domain Battle 2030-2050 Conference, Georgetown University, 25-26 July 2017.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE: https://madsciblog.tradoc.army.mil/16-emergent-threat-posed-by-super-empowered-individuals/?doing_wp_cron=1596289642.7710399627685546875000