Beyond the Told

by Dr. David M Robertson

Category: Security & Safety

Personal and professional security related ideas

A Case for the Humanoid Ride-Along

AN OPEN LETTER TO LAW ENFORCEMENT AND SECURITY FORCES I’ll open this with a simple idea: this is not a letter about technology. Instead, it is a letter about accountability, and why the institutions charged with maintaining public order are among the least accountable structures in modern civil society. However, the humanoid robot ride-along is […]

Reflexive Control in the Age of AI

Security threats are often framed as direct attacks. Breaches, exploits, intrusions, and sabotage dominate attention. But Reflexive Control operates differently, because it doesn’t attack systems directly. Instead, it shapes the environment in which decisions are made, allowing targets to act against their own interests while believing they are acting independently. In many ways, it is […]

Knowing Your ID Rights During Police Encounters

Most people do not learn their legal ID rights (or any right) during a police encounter until after something goes wrong. At that point, confusion, fear, and misinformation tend to replace clarity. This is not because the law is unknowable, but because it is fragmented. Identification requirements vary by state and context, and are often […]

The False Promise of Safety and U.S. Decline

Beware an overemphasis on safety! Weird thing to say, right? Allow me to explain. When examining the decline of the United States, one does not need to look far to recognize that America is not the beacon of excellence it once was. Where liberty and resilience once defined the nation, complacency and fragility now dominate […]

When Emotion Outvotes Reason

The recent election in New York has captured national attention, not because of the typical partisan noise, but because a self-proclaimed socialist, using openly communist slogans, has taken power in one of America’s most visible cities. His campaign praised ideological revolution, called for the punishment of his opponents, and promised a future of redistribution and […]

America is in Fifth Generation Warfare

Despite what the hostile media would have you believe, America truly is under attack by ideas that have been sharpened into weapons. Extremist movements hostile to capitalism and constitutional order have been mobilized as pawns in a larger game. Many adherents believe they are fighting oppression, yet they serve (willing or not) as force multipliers […]

AI Has Rewired Fraud. Here’s What Works.

A good question about fraud came up in one of my Telegram groups: ‘Generative AI has changed fraud, so what controls actually work now?‘ I thought it might make for a good article, because it’s the right question to ask. However, the answer requires recognizing that we’re dealing with an evolved version of a persistent […]

The Danger of Preemptive Accusation

Projection is a term rooted in psychology that describes the act of attributing one’s own undesirable traits, motives, or actions to others. While it often occurs subconsciously in personal relationships, projection can also be wielded strategically, particularly in politics and propaganda, as a way to deflect attention and control narratives. When those in power use this […]

How the Machine Suppresses Truth

Our best decisions are typically rooted in accurate information. However, when critical information about corruption, public health risks, or institutional failures are silenced, society is left uninformed and unprepared to address real threats. This manufactured ignorance can lead to unsafe policies, unchecked abuses of power, and the erosion of public trust in essential systems. Moreover, […]

Reflexive Control and Perception Warfare

As promised in my article on Active Measures, I am writing you an article about Reflexive Control. This is a very important topic that revolves around security and cognitive behavior manipulation. This combination makes it exceptionally difficult to get great information because the overlap is sometimes hard to navigate. Hence, this is why I think […]