COGNITIVE WARFARE: BATTLEFIELD OF TOMORROW

HACK THE BRAIN

HELP US UNDERSTAND

Mind. Consciousness. Perception. The human brain. A potential battlefield of the 21^st century. The notional sixth domain where warfare occurs in addition to land, sea, air, space and cyberspace.

Hack the Mind Results Announcement

Winning works

Author(s)	Title
Ondřej Vodička	A Struggle for the Meaning
Jolie McDonnell, Claire Liddy, Marc Helou, Nyeli Kratz, Pranav Reddy, Ricky Cheng, Tyler Shin	Circuit Breaker Approach to False Information Mitigation
Alexandra Borgeaud dit Avocat	Cognitive Warfare: Battlefield of Tomorrow
Kathy Cao, Adriana Pena, Danbi Rhee, William Rong, Alexander Rovalino	Wargaming in the Cognitive Domain
Alonso Bernal, Melanie Kemp, Cameron Carter, Ujwal Arunkumar Taranath	NATO – Cognitive Biotechnology
Andrej Kos, Vojtěch Jirásek	Ontological (In)security: How Mind Gets “Hacked”?

Cognitive warfare

To what extent can the power of the human mind be manipulated with modern technologies? The core of the problem lies in the fact that we still do not know how to orient ourselves in this area. We do not have it defined and we are not sure what to call it. And naming a problem is always the first step that leads to its solution.

Therefore, we are organising the ideathon Hack the Mind. Hack the Brain. Help Us Understand.

We want to find answers to fundamental questions pertaining to cognitive warfare.

Our ideathon has considerable objectives:

Find the definition of cognitive warfare.
Map the methods by which modern technologies are influencing the human brain and mind and the extent to which they have a potential security risk.
Identify potential risks and threats of cognitive warfare and find ways to guard against them.
Consider how the human mind and brain work in connection with current technologies and the hyperconnectivity of the 21^st century.
Find existing technical and non-technical solutions to the outlined problems.

Participation in the ideathon is open to everyone who is interested in the topic of cognitive warfare and wants to share their knowledge, ideas and solutions in this area. We accept both teamwork and the work of individuals from humanistic, technical, scientific, technological and other sectors. We welcome the involvement of startups, spin-offs, carve-outs and other entities that are looking for solutions to the above-mentioned issues.

If you have something to say about this topic, don’t hesitate and join us! The objective of the ideathon is to open a society-wide debate on cognitive warfare.

Grand prize of the ideathon

The event offers a unique opportunity to contribute to the beginnings of shaping the topic. Thanks to direct collaboration with the NATO Innovation Hub, your projects will be used as inputs when creating strategic documents that will serve for determining the future direction of the alliance. At the same time, you will have the opportunity to communicate your work to all thirty NATO member countries.

Other prizes

The ideathon also makes it possible to establish important contacts with leading experts in the defence and security industry, as well as to receive prizes donated by partners of the competition. With respect to media coverage of the event, extensive presentation space is provided for the participants.

Whether you are a scientist or a thinker, an enthusiast or an expert in psychology or sociology, and you are not indifferent to the security of the human mind or you have a product that you know can have an effect on the human mind, you are in the right place. You will be able to gain insight into a topic that has remained closed until now.

Contribution to some NATO strategic studies
Participation in a society-wide debate
Scouting and subsequent financial support
Collaboration

Course of the ideathon

Announcement of finalists and winners – third week in October 2020

Essay requirements

Essays must be in English. An essay must not be longer than 1,800 words. The wordcount includes footnotes, but excludes abstract, bibliography and appendices. All essays must include a 150 word long abstract. Essays exceeding the wordcount by more than 10% will be automatically disqualified. We accept all reference systems (Chicago, MLA, etc).

Video requirements

Videos must be in English or include English subtitles. A video must not be longer than 5 minutes. Videos exceeding the time limit by 10% will be automatically disqualified. We are interested in content, not so much in presentation and graphics (we leave that entirely to the authors). Videos must be accompanied by a short 150 word abstract.

Registration

To register your application submit the essay or video through the registration form.

Deadline

Videos or essays must be submitted before October 10, 2020 23h59 CET

Who is behind the ideathon

The ideathon is being implemented by the DefSec Innovation Hub team with conceptual support from the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) and in cooperation with Czech Invest.