We further demonstrate how narrative networks can augment these representations to indicate potential areas for successful or problematic adoption of new technologies and potential needs for additional training.
"Darpa looking to master propaganda via Narrative Networks,'" read the headline of a report on the science news website Phys.org, for example, alongside countless similar blog posts and tweets.
As an alternative perspective, we discuss the use of narrative networks as a way to conceptualize the role of human and non-human actants, and to represent the variable patterns of action that are characteristic of "live" routines.
Known as Narrative Networks, it seeks to "understand how narratives influence human thoughts and behaviour, then apply those findings to a security context in order to address security challenges such as radicalization, violent social mobilization, insurgency and terrorism, and conflict prevention and resolution," says William Casebeer, the Darpa official leading the work.
"None of the work we are doing, nor anyone else I know in the Narrative Networks group, is about increasing the ability of soldiers or sailors to kill people or to brainwash people," says Paul Zak, a professor at Claremont Graduate University in Claremont, California, who specializes in neuroeconomics, and whose work has been funded by the Darpa program.
"I see a device coming that's going to make suggestions to you, like, a, this situation is getting tense, and, b, here are things you need to do now, I'll help you as you start talking," says Montague, who is part of the Darpa Narrative Networks project.
Alongside traditional narratives, network literature includes multimedia texts containing graphics, photos and videos, and stories with multiple authors, with hundreds of contributors in extended threads which may roll on for years on message boards.
The strongest weapons available to our enemies are ideas of religious supremacy and perennial confrontation, backed with logistical networks, and repressive political conditions that help strengthen their narrative and network.
Narrative web series are provocative, independently produced video stories that are predominantly made outside of the classic network model.
Mr. Price acknowledged that writing commercial-break cliffhangers and negotiating narrative compromises with network executives took some getting used to: "What I didn't want is a show where everybody is a hero every two seconds, and shots are fired every three seconds.
The series' unconventional and complex narrative made the network deviate from its traditional marketing strategies.
