Intel agency seeks technology to suspend users’ cultural perspective

The Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity is seeking ideas for how to develop simulation tools that would allow a person to “experience a situation or interaction as if they were someone from a different culture,” according to a request for information. The technology is aimed at diplomats and intel agents.

The research investment arm of the intelligence community is seeking “theories, techniques, tools, and metrics that would aid in building and objectively measuring capabilities that enable someone to ‘suspend’ their own cultural perspective of a particular situation or event,” the solicitation reads.

The document signaled that advances in data collection and visualization, graphic user interfaces, and “rich multi-sensory and immersive environments” could aid virtual tools that would allow an expert to “accurately grasp a native's point of view on a particular situation.” The request for information is intended to provide ideas for a potential IARPA investment, the document reads.