"Spam & Eggs"
Another article, this time in the Guardian, discusses the recent disclosure by the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA) that they will be analyzing the metaphors discovered in communications in order to detect potential terrorist activities and discern their plans. As the author of the article writes:
The spooks’ conjecture is that understanding how humans use metaphors might provide an efficient way of extracting meanings from messages. So the project’s goal, says its programme manager, Heather McCallum-Bayliss, is to “exploit the use of metaphorical language to gain insights into underlying cultural beliefs by developing and applying a methodology that automates the analysis of metaphorical language”. Dr McCallum-Bayliss’s presentation explaining the project makes fascinating reading. “Understanding the shared concepts and patterned behaviours of a culture is a significant challenge,” she writes, “because cultural norms tend to be hidden. Even cultural natives have difficulty defining them. Having a system that could discover and structure cultural beliefs and perspectives would be valuable to novice and seasoned analysts alike.”
As noted in a previous post on this topic, metaphors are the bread and butter of the Denovo detective methodology, especially conceptual metaphors, those that function around basic discoveries of the world made during infancy, such as over/under, in/out, before/behind, and so forth.
It’s nice to see research that has been used to discern commercial viability for new products and analyze customer belief systems for years finally find its way into the intelligence community.
