#100 Rand Waltzman on the Metaverse and Immersive Virtual Reality

The Cognitive Crucible

The Cognitive Crucible is a forum that presents different perspectives and emerging thought leadership related to the information environment. The opinions expressed by guests are their own, and do not necessarily reflect the views of or endorsement by the Information Professionals Association.

During this episode, IPA founding board member, Dr. Rand Waltzman, returns to the Cognitive Crucible to discuss the Metaverse and his popular Disinformation 101 series. Our wide ranging discussion covers cognitive challenges related to immersive virtual reality environments, sensor technology, emerging influence methods, cognitive behavioral therapy, affective computing, and kayfabe.

Resources:

• Cognitive Crucible Podcast Episodes Mentioned
  • #83 Joseph Lee on Jung and Archetypes
  • #47 Yaneer Bar-Yam on Complex Systems and the War on Ideals
  • #90 Dave Acosta on Informationally Disadvantaged
  • #64 Greg Radabaugh on Informational Power
  • #82 John DeRosa and Alex Del Castillo on Measuring Effectiveness of Operations in the Information Environment
  • #81 Cassandra Brooker on the Effectiveness of Influence Activities
  • #69 Matt Venhaus on ARLIS & the Cognitive Security Proving Ground
  • #38 Lori Reynolds on Operations in the Information Environment
  • #75 Todd Manyx on the MCIOC
  • #1 Rand Waltzman on Cognitive Security
• Rand Waltzmans' Disinformation 101 Series
• GPT-3
• New Age Bullshit Generator
• The Humbugs of the World: An Account of Humbugs, Delusions, Impositions, Quackeries, Deceits and Deceivers Generally, in All Ages by Phineas Taylor Barnum
• Kayfabe
• WHAT SCIENTIFIC CONCEPT WOULD IMPROVE EVERYBODY'S COGNITIVE TOOLKIT: Kayfabe by Eric R. Weinstein
• Affective Computing

Link to full show notes and resources

https://information-professionals.org/episode/cognitive-crucible-episode-100

Guest Bio:

Dr. Waltzman has 35 years of experience performing and managing research in Artificial Intelligence applied to domains including social media and cognitive security in the information environment.  He is formerly Deputy Chief Technology Officer and a Senior Information Scientist at the RAND Corporation in Santa Monica, CA. Prior to joining RAND, he was the acting Chief Technology Officer of the Software Engineering Institute (Washington, DC) of Carnegie Mellon University. Before that he did a five-year tour as a Program Manager in the Information Innovation Office of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) where he created and managed the Social Media in Strategic Communications (SMISC) program and the Anomaly Detection at Multiple Scales (ADAMS) insider threat detection program. Dr. Waltzman joined DARPA from Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Laboratories (LM-ATL), where he served as Chief Scientist for the Applied Sciences Laboratory that specializes in advanced software techniques and the computational physics of materials. Prior to LM-ATL he was an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden, where he taught and performed research in applications of Artificial Intelligence technology to a variety of problem areas including digital entertainment, automated reasoning and decision support and cyber threat detection. He has also held research positions at the University of Maryland, Teknowledge Corporation (the first commercial Artificial Intelligence company in the world where he started in 1983), and the Applied Physics Laboratory of the University of Washington. Dr. Waltzman serves as Advisory Board Member of GLOBSEC HADES initiative. He is also a founding board member of the Information Professionals Association.

About: The Information Professionals Association (IPA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to exploring the role of information activities, such as influence and cognitive security, within the national security sector and helping to bridge the divide between operations and research. Its goal is to increase interdisciplinary collaboration between scholars and practitioners and policymakers with an interest in this domain.

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