Pattern Detection
Humans tend to register the unfamiliar rather than the familiar, the unusual rather than the usual. Theory of Signal Detection assumes that there are two stages of information processing in the task of detection: First sensory evidence of presence or absence of signal or noise, secondly a decision whether evidence is strong enough based also on probability and positive outcomes. Psychophysics attempts to measure the relationship of physical stimulation and the psychological sensations it produces. Absolute human sense threshold in vision is defined as a candle in a clear dark night at distance of 30 miles. In touch the threshold is the wing of a fly falling on a cheek from 1 cm. Difference thresholds are defined as just noticeable difference (JND) or the smallest change can be detected in 1 of 2 trials. JND for weight is 2%, brightness 2%, and loudness 10%. Counterintelligence Manuals on observation techniques refer to psychological research which asserts that on average 85% of what is learned from a real life situation is through the visual sense and only 13% is learned through the sense of hearing while 2% is through the sense of touch, smell and taste. The human visual system is not able to detect movement of less than 1/10 of a second, which is the basis for a variety of illusions or tricks which involve a quick hand, the "sleight of hand". In the space domain, vision is better than audition, so typically vision dominates, but in the time domain, just as exemplified in speech perception, hearing resolution is better than vision. Hearing may be as much as 10 times better than vision in resolving events that happen very close together in time.
Scientists study how senses help the brain fill perception gaps to give meaning to events. Experiments suggest that the moment of perception, what the brain thinks is "now," may have happened as much as half a second ago. The light had to reach the eyes, and the sound had to reach the ears, then both signals get processed by the brain so that they look simultaneous. "But it's nothing but trickery of the brain, creating truth from illusions and it takes a lot of effort to make it come out right."
As to how this all happens one answer is that it's an illusion and things are not actually all that coherent.
Pattern Recognition
Pattern Recognition is a process of identifying a stimulus and is among the best-developed of human perceptual and cognitive skills. It is a process whereby sensory input is recognized as a meaningful entity. It seeks similarities and regularities recognizing a correspondence between a stimulus and information in memory. Processing sensory information and the comparison to a representation stored in semantic memory allows the perceiver to recognize the stimuli.
Theories of Pattern Recognition are derived from the general theories of perception. The field of Pattern Recognition addresses pattern in all forms and is concerned with the classification or description of observation. The research is connected to advanced programming techniques of machine representations, relating information of aspects of the outside world to machine behavior. Pattern Recognition by computers is not just concerned with the identification of visual or audio patterns (machine vision and voice recognition) but also includes statistical data or data such as the patterns of interaction and communication of individuals and groups based on their increasingly recorded electronic footprints.
A collection of emerging information technologies is grouped around cognitive computing and the study of how machines can observe the environments, learn to distinguish patterns of interest and make reasonable decisions about the categories of the patterns. Use of this technology is widespread not only in robotics, in medical diagnosis and EKG signal analysis and character, voice, handwriting recognition and biometrics but also financial forecast copyright surveillance, psychological profiling, automated target recognition and a steady increase of new applications. Pattern Recognition has been embraced as a key technology for future generations of user interfaces incorporating augmented reality features in human computer interface design.
Patterns of human speech waveform is quite complex and the ability of humans to understand and generate these waveforms is rather astonishing. Humans develop processes for understanding and generating speech that outperforms our ability to generate and process other sounds in early life. Speaking is a complex activity, requiring about 140,000 neuromuscular events per second to succeed. Speech rests on an ability to pair stored mental concepts with incoming data from the senses. Understanding speech is an interaction between processing the speech waveform and our ability to understand language. Status, or social power, is widely marked by particular speech-forms in socially stratified societies. Speakers also shift their speech-forms in predictable ways across different social situations, thus marking a society's construction of social contexts. The social relevance of Pattern Recognition extends to a variety of communication channels including dress codes. Beyond the insignia of formal authorities much of the code structure remains hidden like embedded watermarks. The sophistication of patterns is only fully decoded in the specific network; mobile social groups further restrict access by regular change of codes.
Perception Management
There is no conceivable way of coping with the stimuli that impinge upon the senses, and with the volume and complexity of the data to analyze, without simplifying preconceptions about what to expect, what is relevant, and what is related to what. Because of limits in capacity to cope directly with the complexity of the world, the mind constructs simplified mental models of reality. It is possible to behave rationally within the confines of such a mental model of a "bounded" or limited rationality but it is not always well adapted to the requirements of the real world. Perception is not simply determined by stimulus patterns but is the result of a dynamic search for the best interpretation of available data, a hypothesis based on the sensory data. The Necker Cube, a geometrical pattern, contains no clue as to which of two alternative hypotheses of perception is correct, there is no answer. The perceptual system entertains first one, then the other hypothesis and never comes to a conclusion. (L.A. Necker noticed during his examination of crystals in 19th century that the spatial appearance of three-dimensional objects can be interpreted differently.)
Military glossaries define Perception Management as actions to convey and deny selected information and indicators to targets resulting in behaviors and actions favorable to the originator?s objectives. This is mainly achieved by combining truth projection, operations security, cover and deception, and psychological operations in various ways. Commercial Perception Management agencies offer their services in crafting a strategy that includes framing a coherent, focused population of semiotics and messages to be distributed into selected information environments. Their requirements listed for Perception Management campaigns in the targets information environments include real-time monitoring, perception mapping, tracking of expectations, quantification of different infospheres, message pre-testing, metrics on diffusion through target and collateral populations (influence, contagion, propagation, resistance, improvement). The social engineering analysis and automatization of society is derived from military operations research, the methodology of tactics and logistics; the use of extensive data-processing is the silent weapon in an undeclared war.
Perceptive Expectations
Perception is an active process where stimuli observed by receptor organs are influenced by past experience, education, cultural values, and role requirements. Information obtained depends upon the observer's assumptions and preconceptions, and by the context where different circumstances evoke different sets of expectations. There is a strong tendency in human perception to model perception according to expectation, humans tend to perceive what they expect to perceive.
It takes more information and data processing, to recognize an unexpected phenomenon than an expected one. Expectations have diverse sources, including past experience, education, professional training, and cultural and organizational norms. This tendency to perceive what is expected seems much more important than any tendency to a desired perception or so called wishful thinking.
Trying to be objective does not ensure accurate perception and patterns of expectation can become so deeply embedded that they continue to influence perceptions even after a wrong preconception has been corrected. Expectations form a set of Mind Patterns, a predisposition to think in certain ways, like a menu through which one interacts with the world. Patterns of expectation are placing relevance in modes of interpretation. The idea of being influenced only by the facts rather than by preconceived notions is naive for there is no such thing as "facts". There is only a very selective subset of an overall mass of data. Being subjected to this subset allows one to classify and judge the relevance to the question at issue.
Persuasive Influence
Persuasion messages are designed to arouse or stimulate needs. It must cause an action or bring about an attitude. This requires that the message tell the target how to satisfy its needs by following the course of action. In order to get the action or attitude desired, the message must, in the opinion of the target, offer the best solution (or the only logical one) toward solving the problem addressed or in fulfilling target needs.
The social psychology of influence investigates the causes of human change in behavior, attitude and belief. Social influence is employed by an agent or practitioner upon a target. The agent's message is called its advocacy. Inducing attitude change is called persuasion while change in belief is called education or propaganda- depending on perspective. Behavioral change which doesn't require the target to agree with the advocacy but to simply perform a behavior is defined as compliance. (Playing muzak over a loudspeaker will empty a parking lot full of teens without having changed their attitudes. Some restaurants play faster-paced muzak at peak service periods, to make people move faster and clear out.) Six main categories of tactics employed by compliance agents and intelligence practitioners to produce 'yes' responses are related to fundamental psychological principles of persuasion that dominate human behavior: comparison, liking, authority, reciprocation , consistency, and scarcity. These cues appeal to mechanisms like: "Others Are Doing It - I Should, Too"; "I like the Source - I Do What Is Requested"; "the Source Is an Authority - I Can Believe It"; "Someone Gives Me Something - I Should Give Something Back"; "When I Take a Stand - I Should Be Consistent"; "When It Is Rare - It Is Good". These compliance rules are put to best use when the receiver is not carefully, deeply, and systematically thinking but uses heuristic mental shortcuts to save time and effort. The systematic mode refers to a thought process that is active, focused and alert while the heuristic mode is, just thoughtful enough to be aware of the situation, but not thinking carefully enough to catch flaws and inconsistencies. Situational and personality variables like relevance and comprehension affect the mode of thinking. While "arguments" appeal to systematic thinking, a lower level of cognitive attention will be better influenced by cues.
Persuasive Internalization
An attempt to win "the heart and mind" of the target is defined as persuasion. Although persuasion is demanding, because it needs to induce attitude change, which entails affective emotion-based change, its effects are more sustainable as the target accepts and internalizes the advocacy. There is an interesting reverse-incentive effect regarding internalization of advocacy, where lower incentive for compliance favors a higher internalization and therefore a higher potential for adaptive change. Paradoxically, people will show more attitude change when they are given smaller rewards for performing behaviors than when they are given larger incentives and rewards.
Education or Propaganda is the propagation of a set of beliefs. Beliefs are things known or believed to be true, as opposed to attitudes, which are evaluations of stuff that we think about. Beliefs are important precursors to both attitudes and behavior, but are often used or created after the fact to defend attitudes and behaviors we already own. It has been suggested that by merely directing thoughts to attitudes and beliefs with logical implications for one another, those attitudes and beliefs become more consistent. The term "propaganda" first documented in the early 17th century to increase church membership is now increasingly used in the sense of mass persuasion efforts manufactured by political entities that go beyond belief manipulation. Thought control methods combine compliance, persuasion, and propaganda tactics into a powerful form of coercive manipulation. Thought control that tries to replace the individual identity with another that the individual would not have freely chosen is supported by social isolation of the individual and therefore more readily accomplished in closed groups.
Propaganda Propulsion Project (PPP)
The News are the waves and ripples generated by fundamental currents in the deep sea of unconscious agreements, reinforcing myths and conditioned reflexes. As is generally true of a myth, the story contains elements of truth. Social myths are necessary for harmony with the environment and reduce the stress of the unknown. Consuming your news media of choice is satisfaction in the desire to reduce tension and find a soothing remedy for cosmic loneliness in cognitive-ritual participation.
A Leviathan scenario in which humans are induced to give up the right to themselves in exchange for personal safety, exploiting the human tendency to be subsumed by social organisms via self- and reality-alienating tendencies of language. (Leviathan was the name of the US Merchant Marine vessel that laid the first trans-Atlantic telephone cables.) The Sumerians believed in Seas of Knowledge, the Akkadian creation myth features the primordial sea-serpent Mummu-Tiamat, the dark empress ruling the Chaos of the Sea.
The dramas of mythological soap operas and their strange attractors generate self-sustaining patterns, while the enforcement of an attention focus on the spectaculum drowns everything that does not fit the myth (in a factually most exclusive world). The objective is to create a focus of interest. Psychological Themes and POETs (Primed Oscillator Expendable Transponders) evoke one aspect, while leaving out another. A structure of pure sounds, pure letters and pure signals conjures feelings and reflexes in an autopilot, chain-thinking hidden guidance system.
Technology has been used at all times for an apotheosis of power and the warring of wars, from the ancient temples to the contemporary centers of influence, and has preserved all the characteristics of a magic craft, practiced by a male-dominated elite of wizards.
Psychotronic Stimulation
In 1953, Dr. John Lilly's goal was to find regions of the brain that controlled different bodily functions. From the use of electro-stimulation, he discovered the part of monkeys' brains which controls pain, fear, anxiety, and anger and he was able to locate the part of the brain that controls erections, ejaculations, and orgasms in male monkeys. The CIA approached Dr. Lilly who cooperated for a short period of time before dissolving the partnership because of the likelihood that his work would be used to develop electronics to remotely control human beings through the use of strategically implanted electrodes in the brain.
Large sums were invested in military applications of psychotronics, biocybernetics and behavioral neuropsychiatry with the aim of cybernetic control of populations.
In one case the subject placed under hypnosis was mentally programmed to maintain the determination to eventually perform one specific act. Thereafter, each time a particular muscle twitched in a certain manner, he increased his determination. As the hypnotic spell was renewed again and again, reinforced by radio stimulation, he made it his life's purpose to carry out his mission.
In 1969 the director of Neuropsychiatry at Yale University, Dr. Jose M.R. Delgado, published "Physical Control of the Mind - Towards a Psychocivilized Society" (Harper and Row) where he explains the underlying agenda of his work with stimoceiver brain implants and asserts that man does not have the right to have his "own" mind. Addressing the United States Congress in February 1974 he predicted that in the not so distant future armies and generals will be controlled by electric stimulation of the brain and demanded to establish "A program of psychosurgery for political control of our society. The purpose is physical control of the mind. Everyone who deviates from the given norm can be surgically mutilated."