The Dialectic of Deception: John Boyd and the Cognitive Battlefield

Cognitive warfare has emerged as a new battlefield where adversaries use AI and deepfakes to attack the human mind and fragment societies. The primary goal is not simply to control information, but to disrupt an opponent's entire decision-making process by preventing them from forming a coherent grasp of reality. Military strategist John Boyd's theories provide a key framework for this conflict, explaining that survival depends on a cycle of destroying outdated mental models and creating new ones. To counter this threat, defenses must go beyond fact-checking to build cognitive resilience in individuals and create agile institutions that can outpace the adversary's attempts to generate chaos.