Parallel Intelligence and Cognitive Warfare
type: NewsArticle
description: Adversaries are creating digital twins of individuals and society to control human cognition and behavior, extending cyber conflict beyond computers into human minds. The competition between defenders and attackers now threatens democracy and human security as commercial incentives have left cognitive defenses underdeveloped. Protecting human cognition has become as critical as protecting computer systems, requiring a fundamental shift in how society understands and responds to modern threat landscapes.
date published: 2026-06-12T12:31:09+00:00
date modified: 2026-06-12T12:49:25+00:00
language: en
is accessible for free: true
article body: # Parallel Intelligence and Cognitive Warfare # Contents # Disclaimer This article contains subject matter that requires careful discussion. While the general topic is not new, this might be unsettling for some subsets of readers. It may result in feelings of disbelief in one subset, and perhaps feelings of dread in another. I kindly ask that we, including myself, keep an open mind so that we can all think clearly and truthfully about the nuances in the problem and solution spaces. To borrow and adapt [phrasing](https://medium.com/@francois.chollet/what-worries-me-about-ai-ed9df072b704) from François Chollet’s post on a similar topic from 2018: This article contains my own personal views. I do not speak for my employer. I am writing this as a member of civil society for readers (e.g. cyber security practitioners) in their capacity as members of civil society. If you reference this article, please have the honesty to present these views as what they are: personal, speculative opinions, to be judged on their own merits. # Introduction In my [last post](https://jackson-t.com/are-we-helping/), I discussed what it looks like in commercial cyber when market incentives and long-term national security incentives seem to pull in opposite directions. It gives strategic adversaries more breathing room to operate because we have been too busy maximizing capital. In this post, I’d like to elaborate on a major blind spot that demonstrates how far along they’ve come and how little we’re doing. It is becoming understood that various actors are able to create digital twins of ourselves and society to ultimately control us in ways that reduce our privacy *and* volition. The competition between defenders and adversaries has extended beyond computers into our minds. I contend that we are experiencing a failure of imagination about adversaries at a scale that has proven lucrative for companies while simultaneously fraying our cognition and social fabric. This knot poses threats to both …
publisher: Web Pulse
keywords: ai-safety, ai-policy, ai-ethics
mentions: François Chollet
citation: CreativeWork