Cognitive Warfare

Author name: Devsena Mishra

Devsena Mishra promotes advanced technologies, the startup ecosystem and government business and technology related initiatives like Digital India, Make in India and Startup India through her portals, articles, videos and books.

Cognitive Warfare

Cognitive Warfare and the Idea of Sahaj Intelligence

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In a democracy like Bharat, the relevance of awareness-driven engagement and a first-responder model within the context of national security is only set to grow. These decentralised, agile responses will play an increasingly critical role in the broader architecture of national defence and societal resilience. And this is precisely where the domain of Cognitive Warfare (CW) begins. India’s experienced strategic community has long observed—and participated in—the transitional journey from Information Warfare (IW) and Psychological Operations (PsyOps) to today’s evolving battlespace. But more recently, a new layer has clearly emerged. When we integrate tools like AI, AR/VR, synthetic media (including deepfakes), and other advanced technologies into this matrix, the battlefield shifts—from controlling information to controlling perception. And that perceptual battlefield is exactly where Cognitive Warfare takes shape. What is Cognitive Warfare – From a Layman’s Perspective One of the biggest barriers to exploring the potential of this domain is the lack of a clear, accessible understanding of what Cognitive Warfare actually means. Too often, we cloud the concept with security jargon, academic references, or overly technical frameworks—making it harder to grasp the basic idea at the heart of it. To cut through the noise, we need to start with a simple, grounded question: How do you explain Cognitive Warfare to someone who’s never heard the term—and what does it actually look like in practice? If the person is a complete layman—someone unfamiliar with advanced tech or modern digital systems (rare these days, but still possible)—we can explain it in lighter terms: Cognitive Warfare is really just the latest version of the oldest game in the world: manipulation. For centuries, manipulators have shaped the way people think, behave, or believe—whether they were ancient travelers, invading empires, imperial regimes, or even certain academic voices: sociologists, anthropologists, ideological influencers, or psychologists. But now, something new has happened. When these classic manipulators shake hands with modern computing, AI, and algorithmic technology, a far more powerful—and more subtle—form of influence emerges. That’s what we now call Cognitive Warfare. So, on a lighter note: It’s not new in spirit—but it’s faster, sneakier… and now, it scales. In essence, cognitive warfare isn’t about breaking systems—it’s about bending perception. And that requires an entirely different kind of defence. Note: The article has been published on the Vivekananda International Foundation (VIF) website. You can read the full article from there. Link to article – https://www.vifindia.org/2025/july/02/Cognitive-Warfare-and-the-Idea-of-Sahaj-Intelligence

Cognitive Warfare, Revolution in Technology Affairs

Revolution in Technology Affairs [RTA]

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Revolution in Technology Affairs (RTA) – the Concept Evolution in military technologies, tactics and strategies, that have the potential to revolutionize the character of warfare, is often viewed under the broader umbrella of RMA- Revolution in Military Affairs. The kind of environment that persuaded military strategists to consider the revolutionary changes in the character of warfare, in the context of global politics and security, today exists in the domain of Technology affairs too! The pace of developments in Information and Digital Technologies domains is rapid and revolutionary, and Bharat is at the forefront of this change! In the last 9 years of an unprecedented digital transformation, Bharat has presented a model of Digital Public Infrastructure and Digital Governance before the world! To observe/explore and study these changes, their current trajectory and future developments, the Cognitive Warfare Agency (CWA) introduces the idea of Revolution in Technology Affairs [RTA]. A concept originating from Bharat. Cognitive Warfare Agency (CWA) – http://cognitivewarfare.in/ About Devsena Mishra – https://www.linkedin.com/in/devsenami…

Cognitive Warfare, Virtual Reality

Virtual Reality and Data (Part 1)

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A National Security Perspective Virtual Reality (VR), often projected as a future state of current tech improvisation, is, on the contrary, one of the earliest tech experiments of previous century. It’s a product of the Postwar phase, which in many ways, was haunted by the fear of mind control and counter-control obsessions! It was a time when on one hand, the psychologists were experimenting with their ‘controlled’ feedback methods, behaviourists were formulating and propagating their behaviour modification theories, and the cybernauts of the Valley (backed by the US military) were designing and developing digital realities in their labs and novelists/sci-fi writers were painting those wild imaginations with the metallic flavour of modern paranoia (for ordinary people), all at the same time! If those plans would have succeeded, the dystopian tech future would have arrived by now! So, what happened then? What stopped such well-laid-out plans halfway? Well, one can say that the Virtual Reality plans faced a reality check. The fuel to run the engine was missing! In the absence of mass reach of the internet and Data, the attempts to produce a low-cost, blockbuster version of VR products could not succeed! While on one side, Virtual Reality, as an idea and product, was itself in its immature state, on the other side, the perfect ‘fertility’ of human minds, their massive ‘engagement’ on screens, and needed universal ‘mindset’ shift cum acceptance, was entirely absent. A behavioural change process (which lasted a few decades) with enormous strategic patience was needed to reach the state we see today! “VR scientists are the illusionists of science; we’re honest when we tell you we’re fooling you, and you should take us seriously when we point out that we’re not the only ones.” (Jaron Lanier, “Dawn of the New Everything: Encounters with Reality and Virtual Reality,” 2017) To probe the limits of present-day Virtual Reality gadgets and their abilities to measure human imaginations, we must first explore the real fuel that runs these ‘Imagineering’ platforms and VR engines! The Idea of ‘Data’ Can the platforms that run behavioural algorithms on people’s screens in an ‘auto’ mode, manipulate the choice of their ‘users’ with precisely targeted dopamine content, see the ‘privacy’ of their consumers as a commodity that can be bought or sold to anonymous entities, facilitates networks of online scammers and shifts the entire burden of ‘responsibility/accountability’ on their subscribers (on the click of a button) and for whom any ‘intervention’ in this process by the democratically elected governments/ institutions, is a violation to their ‘rights’ to leverage this exclusive edge, could ever be inspired to make some behavioural changes in their approach to Data, Privacy, and Rights of their Users? These were perhaps some of the big questions before the drafters of the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill 2023 of Bharat, which is now an act. “This law will start an era of responsible and accountable behaviour by data fiduciaries to maintain and protect citizen’s digital privacy” said Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar. The debate around Data, Privacy, and Protection is long and interesting. Over the last few years, several jargons related to the idea of ‘Data’ were launched, and many have attempted to equate the term with the ‘New Oil’ and ‘New Gold’ kind of abstract definitions to highlight its ever-growing value/influence in our life! One of the biggest ironies of ‘Data’ is that it often comes from people who have been told that they are going to be obsolete or replaced by the same machines that this Data fuels, and yet they are addicted/trapped to an extent, that they keep feeding these systems, pleasantly and voluntarily! According to some rough estimates, on average, routine internet users produce some 2.5 quintillion bytes of data every day (a quintillion is equal to number 10 raised to the power 18). “The fate of information in the typically American world is to become something which can be bought or sold” –Norbert Wiener, The Human Use of Human Beings (1950) Data is ‘Power’ Back in 2021, at the World Economic Forum (WEF) gathering, Russian President Vladimir Putin highlighted the digital giants’ increasing intervention in the social, economic, and political systems of the world, and he mentioned that: “In some areas, they are de facto competing with states.” Then he went a step further and asked the gathering, “Where is the border between successful global business, in-demand services, and big data consolidation and the attempts to manage society at one’s own discretion, and in a tough manner, replace legal democratic institutions and essentially usurp or restrict the natural right of people to decide for themselves how to live, what to choose and what position to express freely?” These are undoubtedly the dominant questions of this century. And today, it seems that words like Data and Big Data have become some of the biggest fallacies of our time, more deceptive than Russian Maskirovka itself! Ask a normal user of the internet what’s the meaning of these popular terms like Data and Big Data, and they will reply promptly ‘Information,’ without realizing that it is this Data cum information which is capable of electing the governments, destabilizing the political system, crashing the businesses/markets, disrupting the socio-economic environment, and winning the battles (not just of narration but physical too)! In a nutshell, today the idea of Data has become a synonym for ‘Power,’ the source of unlimited/unrestricted Power! And to know where this power currently resides and who controls it, one needs to go no further but to see the list of the world’s top 10 tech giants, and their home countries (and there is not a single Indian IT company in that list)! Now the question is if data is Power, then some amount of thrill, hallucination, and control it must have produced! So, what does a mix of all that look like, and where is the Real playground? Virtual World (आभासी दुनिया) The word ‘Virtual’ means आभासी in Hindi. Something that one can sense and interact with but which […]

Cognitive Warfare, Digital Empires

Digital Empires – Emerging Trends And Visuals

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These days, some strange and unnecessary trends/visuals/debates are flooding over our screens (whether we want to see them or not), and sometimes it seems that the ‘Digital Empires’ are making their presence felt in our life like never before! Other than Infrastructure and Economic Influence, these Digital Empires and their citizens both have some political acceptance too. Today, protecting the rights of ‘Digital Citizens’ is a top priority of democratic governments across the world, and such jargons are now a part of the routine public discourse and official briefs. So, from Digital Apps to Digital Economy to Digital Empires, it seems this global transition is going at a remarkable pace and ease! But sometimes, we must make a fair assessment/reality check on these Digital Empires’ influence to assess whether that is real or some mere fictional stuff. After all, many sci-fi believers exist among us! Now the question is: What should be the measuring stick or a metric to evaluate the strength of these Digital Empires? How can we check whether there is growing acceptance of their existence? And most importantly, where do these new ‘Empires’ stand before the old systems of governance that are still functional (or perhaps they seem so)? Let’s put it in a simple manner: Time is one of the most precious resources of human life, and we tend to measure the value of things in proportion to the ‘Time’ spent. Valuation of Time in our wage, labor, and all other economic exchanges, often helps us to determine the cost and worth of something. So, Time is money, we often say that, and traditionally, human beings tend to be quite thoughtful in spending their money. If we make ‘Time’ a measuring stick here, we can check how much time the Digital Citizens contribute/dedicate voluntarily to these Digital Empires. There are estimates that an average internet user spends approx 6 hours 58 minutes, in a day, on social media platforms (which is close to a full day work shift). Can we expect a normal citizen of any System (say in a democracy) to contribute even an hour from their daily life, only for the sake of sustaining/strengthening the idea of Democracy (happily and voluntarily)? We know we cannot! It takes enormous government efforts to motivate citizens to go to polling stations to exercise their voting (a basic right) once every three, four, or five years, and still, the participation remains lower than expected. That’s the case with every democracy across the world! But on the contrary, the same citizens are spending, their most precious asset – Time, on these platforms cum digital empires, happily and voluntarily, and yet they believe that it’s a free service and the emperors are so kind! These Digital Citizens are even ready to shed their right to privacy, secrecy, dignity, and independent thinking and life, for the sake of participating in the trends of these digital empires and they never demand their human rights here! For a System to exist, individuals must accept, participate and engage in that. So, the participation and engagement of people matters! Some are active to spread propaganda and others are there to counter that, some are seeking entertainment/pleasure, others are producing it, few are using it positively (for education/news, etc.), and the rest are abusing it negatively. But in the end, no one can escape from it, and they will be called ‘Digital Citizens’ of these ever-growing Digital Empires. No social or political organization, across the world, has the capacity for such constant mass mobilization of their members/followers for any single cause, regularly! So, what does the picture look like from an eye of a stakeholder/believer of old systems? Where do their institutions, structures, and platforms of public participation stand in front of these vastly accepted Digital Empires? A few days back, in an interview, while recalling the learnings of his father, Israeli PM Netanyahu said: “My father was a great historian and well, he taught me several things. He said that the first condition for a living organism is to identify danger in time, because if you don’t, you could be devoured. You could be destroyed very quickly. And that’s the nature of the human conflict.” The question we need to ask today is: How should one take these emerging strange and unnecessary trends/visuals/improvisations related to our family, social and religious structures? Is that a perfect trap to drag, attract and engage the remaining few, the detached ones? A few years back, voices on the attention economy and potential loss of creativity and mental capacity from an overdose of screen time, started surfacing across the world, and a healthy trend started where many people voluntarily stopped using these tools/platforms. But then something interesting happened, and all of a sudden tsunami of questions on the very existence of individual identity, their gender, their parenthood, their family, their social and moral beliefs, started surfacing, and that provoked those who were either detached or were in a mood to do so. They all got encouraged to participate. For what? To defend and counter what they believe in! They started participating in these social media exchanges again, sometimes for some serious discourse and sometimes for the good of humanity. Now, what happened next? They all eventually became participants/digital citizens on these Digital Empires! So, in the end, whose gain is this? If we summarize the potential loss from this trajectory, where it is going to hit the most, it seems that eventually, it is the idea of ‘Time’ and the idea of ‘Information,’ that will lose their relevance. In all previous conceptual revolutions in human history, the significance of Time and Information remained intact but now that is changing! When there is plenty of time to spend and a surplus of Information to consume, it is the abundance of time and information itself that has the potential to make them irrelevant too! As a human, we tend to give value to those resources that are scarce, not those that […]

Cognitive Warfare

Anti-Patterns of Performance and Bhartiya Practices

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“The medium is the message,” said communication theorist Marshall McLuhan (Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man, 1964). What McLuhan referred to in this phrase is “the psychic and social consequences of the designs or patterns as they amplify or accelerate existing processes,” as in his views, the ‘message’ of any medium or technology is “the change of scale or pace or pattern that it introduces into human affairs.” Pattern recognition forms a significant part of human observations, but in computer technology, the idea of ‘Anti Patterns’ exists too. So, what are the Anti-Patterns, and how do they work? To see that we can recall the Boeing 737 Max crash catastrophe, that happened between October 2018 to March 2019 (Yglesias 2019). In October 2018, a Boeing 737 Max passenger jet crashed shortly after take-off, off the coast of Indonesia, and five months later, following a similar pattern, another 737 Max crashed in Ethiopia. After investigations, it was widely reported that a flight control software fix known as MCAS (Manoeuvring Characteristics Augmentation System) was one of the key factors that led to the two crashes that killed 346 people. The company tried hard to push the blame on the software malfunction (and even tried to push the blame further on an Indian IT company too) but from the accounts of those involved and their own country’s detailed investigation reports, it came to the surface, that the technology involved was not an isolated factor that contributed to that disaster, it was a part of a series of slip-ups! From economic incentives/drive for profits to culture to system engineering to sales process to training to user interface and documentation, every aspect that expected to yield some advantage instead proved deadly anti-patterns for the stability and performance of the aircraft. And the way those small leakages in their overall working culture/approach, got unnoticed and undocumented in the first crash and surpassed the system again to make their way to the second, reflects the very nature of the ‘Anti-Patterns.’ In 1995, programmer Andrew Koenig first coined the term “Anti Pattern” in his article published in the Journal of Object-Oriented Programming. His core idea was that: an Anti-Pattern often seems like a good approach when you begin, but slowly it leads you into trouble. In simple words, these are not some types of flaws, bugs, or errors that could surface in routine observations, as these practices initially appear to be beneficial and rewarding, but ultimately, they result in seriously damaging consequences. This is one of the key problems with anti-patterns that they look trivial, useful, attractive, and relevant, at the beginning, and due to that illusion, those who follow them often lack the interest/desire to anticipate that in the long run, they can pave the way for unprecedented disaster too. Performance Culture of Bharat – Some Background The performance ethos of our people is rich and most praised in the world, and that reflects in the numbers and volume of our active participation in the skills/performance-based industries and domains across different geographies. The philosophy behind ‘Performance culture’ of Bharat is a bit unique. It is based largely on mutual respect, cooperation, coexistence, and mutual harmony. One can say that by culture, temperament, and by tradition, we are qualitatively different from Western societies. And what differentiates us from the rest is that our people are not vocal about their acts, they are the silent doers, and do not believe in claiming or proclaiming something. There are millions of such silent/unsung/unpraised performers, who far from any limelight doing the heavy lifting for the current trajectory of the country. It is the Performance culture of Bharat, which is one of our core assets, and a crucial differentiator as well! What is changing? Today, there are over 750 million smartphone users in India, and we are going to touch the billion mark soon! According to some rough estimates, an average internet user spends over 6 to 6.5 hours a day online, which is close to a full day work shift. We are aware of the fact that the imported ‘Medium’ and ‘Technology’ on which our people are engaged so intensely has a character and a psychology of its own, and it is visibly bringing a radical psychological/behavioural shift/transformation in the lives of our common people. While we are always open to change, we must also observe/review and monitor what kind of transformation it would be. And at what level is it going to impact our behavioural patterns? Technology Led Anti-Patterns of Performance “The most important thing about a technology is how it changes people” ― Jaron Lanier, You Are Not a Gadget. Roast Culture Anti-Pattern Trolling is a thing of the past. These days our youths are enjoying a new kind of dope on social media platforms called ‘Roast.’ The idea of Roast or Roasting (insult comedy/mockery in the form of humour) is not new but what has changed now is that it is now becoming one of the leading flavours in different domains, be it politics, religion, economy, or even education. Why such a flavour is leading? Because it’s easy, interesting, and entertaining, and gives a different kind of psychological pleasure of having an upper hand on something, be it an issue, event, or a topic of discussion. In India, the trend of Roasting, in its current form, started back in 2015, with AIB Knockout, which sparked big controversies and public backlash (FIRs) due to their lewd comments/acts and obscene shows, which finally led to the shutting down of their production (FirstPost Staff 2015). But the irony is that, within a matter of a few years, today all that seems a part of the mainstream, and today hundreds of more crude and pornographic daily shows/shorts called ‘Roast’ are going live on almost all popular social media platforms. Their hosts and audiences both often fall in the age group of 12 to 30 years of range, and the daily viewership/engagements of these roasters cum influencers are in the millions. From an outer […]

Cognitive Warfare

10th Man View of National Security (Part-2)

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READ ALSO: 10th Man View of National Security (Part-1) An interesting thing about Success Models is that those who pursue them, live in an illusion of ‘control’ and think that whatever they are getting is due to the pain and hard-work they are putting into it. Why? Because their schedule of ‘rewards’ is not fixed! It’s not that they are sure to be rewarded for each and every actions, sometimes they get nothing and sometimes a lot – this unpredictable nature of rewards make them more devoted pigeon, who try hard and thinks may be I have not pecked enough, it is for them there are some motivation quotes available in the market too, such as “No Pain, No Gain.” This is the idea of Variable Ratio Reinforcement theory, which in Skinner’s view yields maximum response rate and maximum sustainability! Creator Economy – Early Signs Over the last few weeks, some headlines are flashing in the mainstream media about the Tulsi Village of Chhattisgarh. The village is now called a YouTubers’ hub, YouTuber Hot Spot, and Content Capital of India, as one in every three residents of village is now a Youtuber, a member of Creator Economy. There are over 1000 Youtubers in the village with a population of approx 3000. And these days all national media outlets are filled with the Success Stories of this village. There are stories from an 85-year-old grandmother to a 15-year-old boy, from people leaving government jobs and farming types routine professions to earning the name, fame, and celebrity status. And the village is now promoted as a Model Village for the country! Some outlets have mentioned that every kid born in this village and its surrounding, now aims to be only a Youtuber in life. After all, those who used to earn 10-15 thousand in a month, today earning 35-40 thousand, and as the number of their subscribers/followers is ramping up, there is no limit to their Success! The whole scheme of the creator economy looks like nothing less than a dream for the residents of this small village of Bharat, at least in numbers and narration. This is a classic case of a ‘Success Model’ in making! Creator Economy has already started setting its footholds in our small towns and villages, the Tier II/Tier III towns and villages are their main target! One can say that this is a unique model of ‘AatmaNirbharta’, which is developed by, nurtured by, and promoted by foreign platforms! Now the question comes how we will convince a kid growing up in these villages, to perform the real work in life, when everyone around him/her is earning not just 100 times more money but name/fame and celebrity status too. And what all it takes is a Smartphone and some ‘fakeness’ before the camera! We cannot ignore the fact that it is our Small Towns and Villages which produces our farmers, our soldiers, our craftsmen, and our Industrial clusters, so giving the foreign tech platforms’ Creator Economy a free runway here is like leasing out the potential of Bharat! And if these viral trends of today become ‘Success Models’ of tomorrow, it will probably take another War of Independence in future to bring our people back on track! Addiction is a neurological process, which can shattered the life of individuals, societies and nation and it is generally irreversible! Drug Addiction in some of our border states like Punjab is one of our key national security issues, and we have seen our rural Punjab falling in the grip of this menace before our eyes! Now these platforms of virtual dopamine- are another man made calamity in making, gradually spreading in the villages and small towns, under the shadow of ‘Creator Economy.’ Our inability to not see these trends can be called nothing but our intentional or unintentional ‘Vision Blindness.’ And it’s a matter of National Security concern! ‘Pit bull’ Controversy -– Uttar Pradesh A few days back, news about a gym trainer’s 80-plus-year-old mother getting killed by their American bully dog pit bull surfaced in the media. The way hundreds of dog/cat lovers, across social media platforms, started a campaign to stand with the killer dog, started showing empathy with the owner for keep showing love to his dog despite losing his mother, and the way entire focus of discussions shifted toward pit-bull’s emotions, it makes one to wonder that what caused our society to become so insensitive, inhuman and immoral! From day one, the young man was pretending to be more ‘unusually’ caring and loving toward his killer pet, and his whole focus was on showing himself ‘cool’ and saving his and his American pit-bull’s brand image. After all, he was in the center of a viral trend, how can he pretend to be a normal human! This is the reality of this token economy, where being viral is more important than living as a normal human! “With nothing else to seek but attention, ordinary people tend to become assholes, because the biggest assholes get the most attention. This inherent bias toward assholedom flavors the action of all the other parts of the BUMMER (Behaviors of Users Modified and Made into Empires for Rent) machine,” Jaron Lanier, author ”Ten Arguments for Deleting your Social Media Account Right Now” and creator of Virtual Reality. If we take the above case as a symbolic reference then the young man represents our Gen Z and emerging Creators’ community, his pit bull represents American tech platforms, and the old mother can be seen as a symbol of our National Interests. With whom do you think our youngsters will stand in the future? “The mob rushes in where individuals fear to tread.”   ― B.F. Skinner, Walden Two There are many such early warning signs related to Creator Economy that exists, and it will need a separate case study of its own for those signs alone. But in a nutshell, Creator Economy is now turning into the most upgraded engine of producing new/improved Success […]

Hybrid Warfare

MILITARY LITERATURE FESTIVAL 2022 JOURNAL

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Military Literature Festival 2022 Journal is a collection of selected articles (from across the globe) on Russia-Ukraine War and its implications for India. It’s a special edition of the Indian Military Review (IMR) Here we are sharing the articles of Devsena Mishra, published under the Hybrid Warfare Category of the journal. Big Tech, Social Media, and Info War – Information Warfare in Ukraine War Weaponization of AI in Russia Ukraine War Cognitive Warfare in the Ukraine War – Live Streaming of Psychological Experiments to Persuade and Influence To Read the complete journal online, visit Indian Military Review’s website: https://imrmedia.in/mlf-2022-journal/

Technology Dominance

An Approach to Deal with Technology Dominance (Part 2)

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Less Engagement, Disengagement and Other Ethical Ways ALSO READ: An Approach to Deal with Technology Dominance (Part 1) Technology-led Vision Blindness More than technology dominance that can be sooner or later disrupted (with global consensus and mutual efforts), we will have to be concerned about its side effects. Somehow our current Internet generation thinks that by the accumulation of the abundance of information from the Internet/social platforms they are gaining knowledge and intelligence (which they would be able to upload into some cloud servers in the future, as these companies often claim). But this idea is flawed at its core; the human mind is not designed to work that way! After reading, listening, and watching, we need some time without outside distraction to think and make sense of all that we have observed. The ability to foresee future events, threats, opportunities and different patterns related to these have a role in the policy/ direction of a nation. Our current generation has stopped practicing this and, like any other art this is also not a privilege, one may lose it. But the question is – can we afford to lose this skill? The absence of this skill can develop a ‘vision blindness’ syndrome and, when a community/society or nation turns vision blind, it always pays a cost for that. ALSO READ: Pandemic : The Big Pharma Conspiracy The notion of ‘Vision Blindness’ has its roots in the historic experiences of the Jewish community. In his book “The Founding Fathers of Zionism,” historian Benzion Netanyahu has mentioned that “the Jews, which in the distant past produced many personalities who excelled in prognosticating the future, became during the Exile a people that seemed to have virtually blind in this faculty.”He said that “we did not discern the greatest disasters even a short while before they occurred.” This was a period in which one may say that “vision disappeared from the people of Israel.” Time to steal the firewood from under the pot has come! The patterns of Technology Dominance are so complex that upon investigating the matter, one may reach a point where things seem to go into an uncertain and never-ending loop. But in the classics of war strategies, it is said that when faced with an enemy or force too powerful to engage directly, you must first weaken him by undermining his foundation and attacking his source of power (‘The Thirty-Six Strategies’, collection of ancient Chinese war tactics). The source of Technology Dominance lies in an over-engagement and growing dependency of the people on these platforms. The more we get engaged, the more powerful these apps become. And this dependency is not natural as well, it’s a proven fact that these platforms are designed to arouse the addiction hormone in the users, just like any other addictive element, and the more we get engaged, the more powerful they become. So, the first step to tackle Technology Dominance must be reducing over-engagement on these platforms. We can call it the first step – Less Engagement. Less Engagement means reducing our dependency on these Big Tech platforms and moving toward our local options – not just being vocal for local but embracing the local apps too. In the last few months, several homegrown alternatives to these popular apps have emerged such as Bharat E Market (a platform developed by Confederation of All India Traders, after a tussle with Amazon), Zoho Mail and its web hosting suite, Koo app, Sandes (government’s messaging app equivalent to WhatsApp) and payments apps like BHIM, PayTM, etc. We will see many more options in the coming days and we can expect some apps to be jointly developed with like-minded nations, too. When a user will have some options to select from, the psychological effect of these apps will automatically get minimized. Once we win that psychological war, dominance will be over. After Less Engagement being successfully implemented, we can start disengaging from these tech platforms too! Disengagement This may sound offensive to some but who said that computers, the Internet and smartphones were the only technology on the planet and only by using these apps one could remain productive and technical! Who established this norm? The original purpose of these products was to make our routine operations fast and easier. When these tech companies entered India, they came with a typical salesmen gesture and offered some very routine products like the office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint), mail, search and some entertainment services – chat, networking, music, videos, games, and shopping. None of these must be given our 24/7 attention and productive energy. So the idea of Disengagement is – if we are using these products other than for their original purpose or their key functions – it means that we are over-engaged on these apps and we are over-engaged because these companies have addictive elements inbuilt in their products. This over engagement is crushing our inherent capabilities, our self-consciousness and without self-consciousness we cannot build great things. To end this addiction, this over-engagement and dependency, we will have to practice some Disengagement from these apps. ALSO READ: Information Warfare : Curbs on Big Tech Necessary The question then arises – how this Disengagement exercise can be promoted on a large scale? We need to understand that computer technology, the Internet, smartphones, Big Data and AI are all some of the most successful business models of our time and they are leveraging their success to the fullest. A large portion of humanity (approx 4.66 billion people) is either over-engaged on tech platforms/ products or is over-influenced by their marketing. To disengage people from these business models, we will have to think about developing New Business Models. The New Business Models is an approach to coin some new ideas, thinking something new, more productive and more interesting and thrilling than all current dominating tech products. Continuing in this space and coining different jargon to leverage the market dominance can be a part of their calculations as they put a lot of effort to reach […]

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