China is also preparing for war in the Metaverse
The analysis by Francesco D'Arrigo, director of the Italian Institute for Strategic Studies
The scientific and military powers of the world are spending billions of dollars on quantum computing research and making the Metaverse a reality. China, which in recent years has been recording various and notable progress, is also gaining leadership in these sectors.
In 2020, Prof. Pan Jianwei vice president of the University of Science and Technology of China and vice president of one of the political parties under the direct leadership of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), conducted the first Earth-Space quantum communications, using the Micius satellite, to create an ultra-secure data link between two ground stations separated by more than 1,000 miles.
Last October, China's 66-qubit Zuchongzhi 2 quantum processor would complete a computation 1 million times faster than the 53-qubit Google Sycamore processor. The processor was developed by a team of researchers from the Chinese Center for Excellence in Quantum Information and Quantum Physics, in collaboration with the Shanghai Institute of Technical Physics and the Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology.
These results derive from the emphasis placed by the Beijing government on quantum computing, investing 10 billion dollars and increasing national spending on research and development by 7% compared to the previous year, to support the birth of many start-ups and companies. technologies for the development of the sector and the Metaverse.
For comparison, the US government in 2018 devoted "only" $ 1.2 billion to quantum computing research as part of a new national strategy but, in an attempt to bridge the gap, last year the Senate approved a bill to create a Directorate of Technology and Innovation at the National Science Foundation, allocating $ 29 billion for the five-year period 2022 – 2026, for research on quantum computing and artificial intelligence.
Industrial, social and military applications of the Metaverso ecosystem
Although there is still no universally recognized definition for the Metaverse, as it continues to evolve and develop, according to Stylianos Mystakidis of the University of Patras "the Metaverse is the post-reality universe, a perpetual and persistent multi-user environment that blends reality physical with digital virtuality ". Others have referred to it as a "physical Internet where one not only looks at the content, but becomes a human person in another dimension".
At such an early stage in the development of the metaverse, it is difficult to assess what impact it will have on politics, the economy, international norms, national security and society as a whole.
In general, the private sector attributes to the concept of metaverse objectives of commercial competition whose growth can develop a new model of digital economy, and giants such as Sony, Lego , Apple, Google, Microsoft, Meta are investing billions of dollars to materialize it according to the your goals.
Governments, on the other hand, look at the concept of metaverse from a different perspective, focused on the strategic, socio-economic impact and potential threats to national security. As always happens in the development of innovative technologies, the interaction between economic and institutional interests is represented by the defense industry.
The wars of the future, be they military or economic, will be increasingly directly affected by Information Warfare, that is, by the ability to influence, to improve (or degrade) the efficiency of the decision-making process of a State (commercial competitor and / or enemy) . The maximum theoretical efficiency of the decision-making process depends on the strategy used to generate information from the data (Big Data), the quantity and quality of the data available and the amount of ambiguity contained in the data used.
In this context, the Beijing government considers Big Data as a strategic production factor and exercises total control over those collected by Chinese technology companies. An obvious example is represented by the widespread platforms and Apps TikTok, Alipay by Ant Group, WeChat Pay, QQ Wallet by Tencent Holdings Ltd, Tencent QQ, CamScanner, SHAREit, VMate, capable of capturing the data of billions of users who have downloaded them on their devices, to understand their needs and potentially influence their decision-making process, especially of young and very young people.
The Chinese approach to algorithms, artificial intelligence, biometric data and apparently friendly technologies capable of transforming them into a threatening, uncontrollable dual-use tool based on an undemocratic interaction between information, technology, power and intelligence represents a strong concern for the US administrations.
The threat of what is turning into a real cognitive war is so high that to protect the vulnerabilities of cyber security and that of American users, the Trump administration in 2020 issued an executive order concerning the limitations of the use of some of these Apps. In December 2021, the Biden administration, through the Bureau of Industry and Security of the US Department of Commerce, also imposed sanctions on several Chinese technology companies to "prevent the misuse of biotechnology and other US technologies by the People's Republic of China to support surveillance systems and military modernization that threaten national security ”.
The Role of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) in the Metaverse
In an article in the PLA Daily, published on March 3, 2022, entitled "Metaverse: the new heights of future cognitive warfare", authors Chen Dongheng, Di Chan and Feng Yaru describe their research on the extent of cognitive warfare in the metaverse.
The authors of the article are researchers from the Military Political Work Institute, Academy of Military Sciences, the most important research institute of the People's Liberation Army (PLA), directly subordinate to the Central Military Commission of the Communist Party of China. The article describes the studies the PLA is conducting on the metaverse and potential military applications and future war scenarios involving this emerging high technology.
Researchers at the Academy of Military Sciences describe the metaverse as a highly developed, and even virtual, cognitive world as an extension of reality. According to their studies, the metaverse provides a parallel cognitive space that digitally twins real-world combat scenarios, where cognitive warfare can be effectively waged and enhanced at exponential rates. On the one hand they recognize the potential social and economic benefits of the metaverse, on the other hand they also anticipate that it will be another ecosystem prone to attack and conflict. "Attacking an opponent's metaverse (and in cognitive warfare more generally) can influence their thinking, cognition and decision making."
The three researchers define cognitive warfare as the merging of weapon systems with artificial intelligence to produce new combat capabilities. The concept includes the use of drone swarms, electronic warfare, hypersonic missiles, changing, transforming and self-healing platforms, unmanned stealth aircraft, biomaterial-infused "stealth" areas, weapon systems and deception facilities. (deception) 3D printed on the battlefield. Futuristic weapons that will be able to recognize, react and adapt seamlessly in any scenario, conducting missions without any human intervention.
Analyzing the studies that the People's Liberation Army of China is conducting, the Air Force China Aerospace Studies Institute believes that Beijing is preparing for war in the metaverse.
According to a report by the US think tank, whose mission is to analyze the strategy, doctrine, capabilities and organization of China's aerospace forces, the Chinese military sees the metaverse as a future battleground for a cognitive conflict. advanced that was once thought to be limited to the realm of science fiction. The Chinese military has three types of confrontation in the metaverse.
The first is a "platform confrontation" involving hostile forces that use the metaverse for cognitive attacks or defense to interrupt, delay, deter, destroy and eliminate opposing metaverse forces. The second is the "supply chain and systems" attacks that will block key systems and the technical functioning of the enemy metaverse, and the third is the "indirect diversion" – compromising the technological communication devices and using deception to alter the functioning of an enemy metaverse system.
The article by researchers from the Academy of Military Sciences already reveals the possible attacks and potential damage that could be caused by cognitive warfare in the metaverse, which will become a prime target in future war theaters.
The Russia-China alliance on the one hand and the United States with NATO on the other seem destined for an inevitable competition between irreconcilable geopolitical visions and an inevitable clash that we hope will return to being peaceful. Although still in its infancy, the metaverse will in the future become a reflection of real society and the enormous strategic and economic interests that characterize it will be another of the many areas of conflict between powers.
For these reasons, the information technology sector has already been identified as a critical infrastructure of the United States and the metaverse will be part of it when it becomes operational.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/la-cina-si-prepara-alla-guerra-anche-nel-metaverso/ on Sat, 30 Apr 2022 07:23:16 +0000.