Quote:Apophenia is the tendency to mistakenly perceive connections and meaning between unrelated things. The term was coined by psychiatrist Klaus Conrad in his 1958 publication on the beginning stages of schizophrenia. He defined it as "unmotivated seeing of connections accompanied by a specific feeling of abnormal meaningfulness".

Apophenia has come to imply a universal human tendency to seek patterns in random information.

"Agenticity"
In The Believing Brain (2011), Shermer wrote that humans have "the tendency to infuse patterns with meaning, intention, and agency", which he called "agenticity".

(01-23-2019 02:23 PM)scotian Wrote:  If my aunt had a cock, she'd be my uncle.

(01-23-2019 03:01 PM)The Beast1 Wrote:  The RVF Autism Epidemic has reached epic proportions.

(01-23-2019 03:06 PM)Lunostrelki Wrote:  The Chinese aren't as impressive as you give them credit for. Under the surface there's a chaos to the authoritarian system they present in their propaganda. The PRC has to spend huge amounts of money and effort on internal security to keep hundreds of millions of disenfranchised peasants from revolt, and in many places they already are fighting the authorities. Meanwhile, the Communist Party itself is filled with all kinds of self-defeating factional struggle. The officialdom is very corrupt and often disobeys the central leadership. They have plans for subverting the United States, of course they do, but plans don't mean anything. What really talks is the money that their very rich are pouring in here. That's very hard for people to resist.

(01-23-2019 02:32 PM)Belgrano Wrote:  That's an impressive example of Apophenia:

Quote:Apophenia is the tendency to mistakenly perceive connections and meaning between unrelated things. The term was coined by psychiatrist Klaus Conrad in his 1958 publication on the beginning stages of schizophrenia. He defined it as "unmotivated seeing of connections accompanied by a specific feeling of abnormal meaningfulness".

Apophenia has come to imply a universal human tendency to seek patterns in random information.

"Agenticity"
In The Believing Brain (2011), Shermer wrote that humans have "the tendency to infuse patterns with meaning, intention, and agency", which he called "agenticity".

(01-23-2019 03:19 PM)fantome Wrote:  If you are able to find it check the documentary:

"The red spies theory" by François Reinhardt.

(01-23-2019 03:02 PM)SamuelBRoberts Wrote:  

(01-23-2019 03:01 PM)The Beast1 Wrote:  The RVF Autism Epidemic has reached epic proportions.

I keep telling myself that there are no useful or interesting discussions on the forum anymore, and I should just stop posting.
It's hard to break the habit, but it's probably time.

(01-23-2019 03:01 PM)The Beast1 Wrote:  The RVF Autism Epidemic has reached epic proportions.

Quote:B-3. China.

a. Recent Chinese doctrine articulates the use of a wide spectrum of warfare against its adversaries, including the United States. The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Colonels Liang and Xiangsui outline China’s vision on how China will attack the United States through a combination of military and nonmilitary actions. Qiao Liang states “the first rule of unrestricted warfare is that there are no rules, with nothing forbidden.”69 Qiao Liang’s rule suggests any method will be used to win the war at all cost. Liang’s theory presents challenges because the United States must prepare for all worse case scenarios. According to Liang and Xiangsui, China will use a host of methods, many of which lie out of the realm of conventional warfare. These methods include trade warfare, financial warfare, ecological warfare, psychological warfare, smuggling warfare, media warfare, drug warfare, network warfare, technological warfare, fabrication warfare, resources warfare, economic aid warfare, cultural warfare, and international law warfare.70

b. An outgrowth of Unrestricted Warfare, China’s three warfare’s concept was approved by the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee and the Central Military Commission in 2003. A summary of the three warfares follows:

• Psychological Warfare seeks to undermine an enemy’s ability to conduct combat operations through operations aimed at deterring, shocking, and demoralizing enemy military personnel and supporting civilian populations;

• Media Warfare is aimed at influencing domestic and international public opinion to build support for China’s military actions and dissuade an adversary from pursuing actions contrary to China’s interests; and

• Legal Warfare uses international and domestic law to claim the legal high ground or assert Chinese interests. It can be employed to hamstring an adversary’s operational freedom and shape the operational space. Legal warfare is also intended to build international support and manage possible political repercussions of China’s military actions.71

China’s Three Warfares are an asymmetrical approach to support conventional and nuclear warfare. A Pentagon May 2013 Report on China claims the Three Warfares are designed to counter U.S. power projection and states that “The United States is one of four key audiences targeted by the campaign, as part of China’s broader military strategy of ‘anti-access/area denial’ in the South China Sea.”72

c. China’s psychological warfare is a “whole of government approach with political, economic, and diplomatic components” and employs psychological warfare to reduce enemy moral through various mediums including “television, radio broadcast, loudspeakers, leaflets, and calculated military operations.”73 Furthermore, psychological warfare includes “diplomatic pressure, rumors, false narratives, and harassment to ‘express displeasure, assert hegemony, and convey threats.”74 Examples of economic based psychological warfare are China threatening to sell its large holdings of U.S. debt and leveraging its nature resources such as rare earth minerals.75 An example of China leveraging its natural resources is the 2010 Senkaku Boat Collision Incident in disputed water territory between Japan. Japan arrested the crew of the Chinese boat provoking China to implement a two month export ban on rare earth minerals to Japan prompting the release of the crew.76

d. China uses media warfare to continually influence populations. Media warfare is “aimed at influencing domestic and international public opinion to build support for China’s military actions and dissuade an adversary from pursuing actions contrary to China’s interests.”77 The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) seeks to control domestic information access and develops themes to guide public opinion. Likewise, China targets foreign media outlet to shape information to support national objectives. The Chinese state-controlled television station network CCTV has a White House pool reporter that could influence U.S. media reporting on China issues.78 In addition, China targets its own people overseas with propaganda to promote the idea of transnational culture that “supports Chinese public diplomacy and espionage operations throughout the world in ethnic Chinese communities, university campuses, and cultural centers such as the Confucius Institutes.”79[/u]

e. China’s legal warfare “uses international and domestic law to claim the legal high ground or assert Chinese interests.”80 China has used legal warfare in its territorial disputes in the South China Sea causing friction between Vietnam, Philippines, and other states that lay claim to the same islands and the East China Sea territorial disputes with Japan. Similarly, China uses legal warfare to influence interpretation of international law, such as the United Nations Convention on the Law of Sea, pushing to expand its sovereign authority out to a 200 nautical mile Exclusive Economic Zone, including the airspace and potentially space within the zone.81 This would benefit China greatly, pushing its territory authority beyond Taiwan into the Pacific Ocean and creating a larger buffer zone and sphere of influence.

f. China has a robust and active cyber warfare programs used to target the United States in the public and private sectors. Richard Clarke and Robert Knake in their book Cyber War: The Next Threat to National Security and What to Do About It outlines ten techniques the cyber warfare department of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) for offensive and defensive operations in cyberspace: “planting information mines, conducting information reconnaissance, changing network data, releasing information bombs, dumping information garbage, disseminating propaganda, applying information deception, releasing clone (sic) information, organizing information defense, and establishing network spy stations.”82 The Department of Defense (DOD) Annual Report to Congress Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China 2012 reports that China in 2011 has maintained investment in military cyberspace capabilities and China had an extensive cyber espionage program targeting “computer networks and systems around the world ... to be targets of intrusions and data theft ... some of the targeted systems were U.S. government-owned, others were commercial networks owned by private companies whose stolen data represents valuable intellectual property.”83 The DOD report asserts that, “Chinese actors are the world’s most active and persistent perpetrators of economic espionage.”84 China has clearly demonstrated that it is conducting some of these operations against the United States.

China is suspected in many cases of conducting cyber-attacks against the United States in the private and public sectors. Shane Harris reports that in 2003 the PLA is suspected of causing power outages in the northeastern United States and Florida. The largest blackout in American history occurred in August 2003 effecting Michigan, Ohio, New York, and Parts of Canada.85 A computer virus disrupted communication lines used to control the power grid.86 In the Florida case, the PLA is suspected of trying to map the Florida Power & Light’s computer infrastructure, but inadvertently shut down a large portion of the Florida power grid in doing so.87 Likewise, Cyber espionage in both government and the private sector is prevalent. Paul K. Martin, National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) inspector general, reported Chinese hackers gained control of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory computer system, and he reported in 2010 and 2011that NASA had “5,408 computer security incidents that resulted in the installation of malicious software on or unauthorized access to its systems.”88 According to Pierre Thomas and Olivia Katrandjian, hackers with Chinese military ties hacked into the Chamber of Commerce with access to “everything in the chamber computers, including, potentially, the entire U.S. trade policy playbook.”89 In addition, the People’s Liberation Army is suspected of hacking into Pentagon computers impacting computer systems in the Office of the Secretary of Defense.90 China’s cyber-attacks clearly show the vulnerabilities to the U.S. public and private sectors information and infrastructure security. States like Russia and China will continue to exploit weaknesses in cyberspace to gather information and influence others.

(01-23-2019 02:23 PM)scotian Wrote:  If my aunt had a cock, she'd be my uncle. What's the point of this thread?