Intelligence, Risk, and Future Threats

5:30pm – 9:30 pm

While there is not yet a broad consensus on what cognitive warfare is and who within the United States Government is responsible for conducting it, there is broad consensus that the United States and China are both engaging in cognitive warfare globally as a part of their respective strategies for competition. Both countries have invested heavily in advanced technologies like artificial intelligence and big data analytics to gain an advantage over the other in terms of global sentiment and, sometimes, even targeting individual political or military leaders, regions, or countries. While today’s tactics of cognitive warfare evolve as quickly as our technologies, its grand strategy goal is as ancient as warfare, “To win one hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the acme of skill. To subdue the enemy without fighting is the acme of skill.” Both the United States and China are engaging in cognitive warfare with the goal of winning in great power competition.

This presentation will address the advent of Artificial Intelligence in both Offense and Defense as it impacts Critical Infrastructure and Key Resources (CIKR) with a very strong focus on Critical Functions assessment.

Autonomous systems have become a common occurrence in conflicts ranging from peaceful protests to war between nation-states yet, somehow, little has been done to look at the threat now and in the future. Furthermore, hardly any innovation has been made to counter autonomous systems now or in the future. In this talk, you will hear about the current state of autonomous systems. You will also hear about the worrisome tactics and strategies used by combatants that can overwhelm existing defensive systems. Last but not least, we’ll discuss mitigation technologies including future systems designed to counter sophisticated adversarial autonomy.

Robi will also conduct a 90-minute workshop on drone and counter-drone warfare including loitering munitions on May 5.

Andy Milburn spent nine months in Ukraine leading an all-volunteer effort to provide critical combat skills training to Ukraine’s all-civilian Territorial Defense Forces as well providing life-saving support to civilians trapped along the front lines of Soledar and Bahkmut, often while under fire by Russian and Wagner Group forces. His talk will address geopolitical and military lessons learned.

Col. Milburn will also conduct a 90 minute workshop on those topics, including why a protracted war will only play in Russia’s favor. At the lessons learned level — if we are paying attention, we will see that current US concepts about military readiness are obsolete.

Beliefs about edge science topics like machine consciousness, premonitions, mind control, psychedelics, high strangeness, synchronicity, the impacts of love and prayer, UFO effects on health, and the survival of consciousness after death affect many US citizens’ everyday behavior. These topics share both their ubiquity as human experiences and their taboo status as scholarly topics. Regardless of their truth value, edge science inspires the imagination and often leads to strategically valuable discoveries. For example, informed investigations of psychokinesis, or the ability to influence matter directly with the mind, could spark innovations that mitigate the encryption-breaking potential of quantum computing. Despite a recent awareness of the lack of innovation arising from expansion on scientific knowns, the inaccuracy of ideas about linear time and causality, and the rise of a postmaterialist approach to science, there is no well-respected organization examining, innovating, and informing policy in this space. In this talk, edge scientist and STEM policy visionary Dr. Julia Mossbridge will describe how making edge science research and innovation a national priority will allow us to mitigate threats and develop opportunities in the military and intelligence space.

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Robi will expand on the topics that he touched on during his 20-minute talk on May 4th, plus add hands-on exercises with actual drones and simulated drone and counter-drone war games.

During his approximately nine months in Ukraine, Andy Milburn had an up close and personal view of the war both from the perspective of the Territorial Defense Units and GUR SOF teams that he worked with as well as civilians he and his team provided humanitarian aid to in and around the Bahkmut “meat grinder”.

In this workshop, Andy will take a deep dive into the military and geopolitical lessons learned and walk the attendees through different scenarios for how the U.S. could best leverage that knowledge to improve military readiness.

“nomad” leads an offensive cyber team at Ukraine’s GUR. In this workshop, nomad will share how they have been identifying and disrupting Iranian and Chinese companies who have been providing support to Russian military forces.

When thinking strategically and preparing for possible future events, we sometimes imagine the future as our enemy. It can seem cagey, secretive, often unpredictable, and potentially adversarial. What if the future became an ally, willingly sharing crucial information with our intuitive capacities? In this workshop, cognitive neuroscientist and informational time travel researcher Dr. Mossbridge will briefly provide the scientific background that supports the idea that an alliance with the future is possible — and in fact, very helpful. The bulk of the time will be focused on selected “best of class” exercises to support this alliance within the context of human intuitive foresight, one of the few skills AI cannot yet replace. Dr. Mossbridge has taught these same exercises alongside the other foundations of intuitive foresight to groups of intelligence and national security professionals. Based on these experiences, she anticipates that participants may be surprised at their capacities for skilled intuitive foresight. The workshop will close with a group discussion of important ethical standards for the development of intuitive foresight and other “Jedi skills” amongst the USG talent pool.