Emerging Tech, Burnout and the Future of War

A talk at TASK by Alana Stasz

Notes

• She studies cyber warfare
• Mostly a talk about Burnout
• Emerging technology includes:
  • 5G
  • IoT and ICS
  • Cloud
  • AI
  • Blockchain
  • Quantum Computer
  • Biological Computing
• Quantum key distribution devices are commercial products now
• Quantum SDKs are available for commercial processes aswell QPU
• She is the queen of Burnout
• Main experience:
  • Financial difficulty, cant works and limited financial aid
  • Legal consequences of being disabled
  • Social consequences, cant engage in social activities and relationships
    • People expect you to be able to eat at social events
    • Cant go to events with food
    • Cant bring food to most events
    • Dont have time to make own food
• Getting a diagnosis for burnout might hurt more than help, you can’t become targetted in this field
• Isolation is the biggest thing that feeds into addition and homelessness
• Burnout is a business risk;
  • Operational
    • People take more sick days
    • Work cant get done
    • Delaying projects
    • Operataional bottlenecks
  • Financial
    • Less financial gains
    • Can’t carry out operations
    • Can’t find more clients
    • No people to run events
  • Reputational
    • People stop coming to business for services
    • Business is seen as less humane
• Truth #1:
  • Root of burnout is psychosomatic, no trigger, all in your mind
  • You can work through intergenerational trauma
  • Relating your identity and work - Parents require you to succeed at all costs, neglecting your spiritual needs
  • Burnout is undiagnosable, random symptoms pop up out of no where
• Truth #2:
  • Burnout propagates in team settings
  • if you have people that are extra angry, extra sad, other people will pick up the same mentality
  • People will have stress raised
• Truth #3:
  • You have to work smarter and not harder
  • More work does not equal higher results
  • Immigrant families believe harder work = better results
  • Fall off after the gains, plateaus at some point
  • Depth of technical aspects do not mean anything as people don’t understand, you require simple situations
  • You let ego come into play, want your technical skills to be seen, but not going to reduce it
• Future of war:
  • Burn out an entire defense sector, or entire industry
  • 90% of cyber professionals want to leave their job
  • Domains of Kinetic Warfare:
    • Land
    • Air
    • Sea
    • Space
  • Newer one: Cyber Warfare
    • Geneva Convention never considered the internet
  • The Tallinn Manual is the newer doctorine for this sector
  • Even newer one: Cognitive Warfare
• Conditions for an Act of War
• International Law
• Kinetic Warfare has distinct requirements
• Cyber Warfare have time and space that is stretched and condensed simultaenously
  • This has been cited in many academic papers
• Stuxnet
• Cognitive Warfare similar with time and space distortion
• Make AI systems that target a person’s trauma and make them burn out
• Questions for thought:
  • What happens when entire industry or society burn out simultaneously?
    • We move to a collectivist mindset
    • North america has the most research on Burnout
  • How might illness caused by burnout be quantified at mass scale?
    • When do we start creating the framework for dianosing these things? When do we start acknowledging as a problem?
  • What is the operational, financial and social impact of a society-wide burnout?
    • Many issues we have in cyber translate to other industries
    • Overwork, alcoholism
• Research on nervous system is not mainstream
• Just staring at a screen is innately bad for the human body
• Getting security clearance, cant talk about things, you have sick people
• Most effective defenses:
  • Drop egoism, admit that you need help