Cave studies
Cave studies
Keywords: Internet, VR, WOSC, Cybernetics society, Surveillance,Computer privacyAbstract Focuses on two topics. The first topic, speleology, is particularly well covered on the Internet and has relevance to evolutionary theories as well as to VR imaging and other areas of interest within cybernetics. The second focuses on a new, and preferred, address given for the WOSC Web site. Choice of free Internet service providers is discussed. Some aspects of surveillance of Internet communication are reviewed,along with proposals to combat it by saturation and by encryption.
The topic of cave studies is well covered on the Internet, and aspects of it have a bearing on areas of interest within cybernetics. Probably the most profound is the contribution of cave research to the understanding of biological evolution. Caves provide an environment in which animal remains, and relics of human activity, are better preserved than in the open. A particularly useful feature, from the point of view of the palaeontologist, is that the relics and fossils are gradually covered by "flowstone" and the depth of such covering allows relatively accurate dating, within shorter time scales than are amenable to other forms of fossil dating. More significant than absolute dating are the deductions that can be made concerning precedence and contemporaneity of items.
A pioneer of such studies was William Pengelly FRS (1812-1894) who examined a number of caves in South Devon, England. The caves in this area are not extensive, and other areas of Britain are more popular for sport caving, but the Devon caves have proved to be of exceptional scientific interest. They contain bones of animals that inhabited the area in prehistoric times, and one of Pengelly's great discoveries was that humans had lived at the same time as species now extinct, and much earlier than had been supposed. His findings challenged the widespread view, held to be supported by analysis of Biblical data, that only a few millennia had elapsed since the creation of the earth.
The findings of Pengelly and his associates were a major contribution to the debate centred on his contemporary Charles Darwin (1809-1882). William Pengelly was a remarkable man whose formal schooling was only to the age of 12, but whose enquiring and analytical mind enabled him to become an authority on a range of scientific subjects.
A biography and portrait can be found on the Web site of the William Pengelly Cave Studies Trust, at: http://www.pengelly.org/. The Trust was set up in 1962, with a Centre in Buckfastleigh, Devon, which includes a small museum. Details of the museum, with pictures, are included in the Web site. The Centre is close to an important group of caves that were formed when the River Dart followed a different course, including one cave that was found to contain the richest deposit of mammalian bones in any British cave.
Bones of hippopotamus, bison, hyena and straight-tusked elephant have been identified, apparently accumulated here because of some sort of shaft or sinkhole in the surface above, through which the unfortunate animals sank or fell. A "talus", or solid cascade of rock debris, can be seen in the cave, with bones embedded in it. The bones date from the last interglacial period, about 100,000 years ago.
The scientific interest of caves is of course not limited to deductions from bones and ancient artifacts, and processes by which the cavities were formed,along with their often beautiful formations, are also treated in the museum exhibits accessible through the Web site.
TrogNet
Before the above-mentioned Pengelly site was set up, a text-only Web site was established by the then Hon. Librarian of the Pengelly Trust, Mr Harry Pearman(now Hon. Chairman, though still also managing the library). He gave it the name TrogNet, and it is an admirable meta-site with links to others worldwide bearing on caves and other underground cavities. The site can be opened at: http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/hape/,in which the last group of four letters is easily remembered as an abbreviation of "Harry Pearman". Cavities are classified under the four broad headings of caves, mines, tunnels and others. Under "tunnels" there are links to sites dedicated to technical details of the London Underground, the Channel Tunnel, and so on.
The TrogNet site was set up under CompuServe, using, initially, the CompuServe Home Page Wizard software. The Web site of which a part is allocated to WOSC, as: http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/alexandrew/wosc.htmwas set up in the same way, and I am indebted to Harry Pearman for guidance on how to go about it. With the coming of later computers and Windows 95 and 98(and corresponding Apple developments) there is now a vast selection of software packages allowing the preparation and editing of Internet material, and the CompuServe H.P. Wizard is seen as relatively primitive and inflexible. There was, however, a time when it filled an important niche, especially since it would run on a PC with a 386 processor, under Windows 3.11.
Missile launch base
A particularly intriguing Web site coming under the "other"classification in TrogNet is based on the illegal and distinctly hazardous exploration of an abandoned underground missile launch base in the USA. The base was one of a number completed around 1968, and claimed by the authors of the Web site to have been obsolete almost as soon as completed. They mention that they were in fact arrested for their illegal entry, but presumably they were not detained for long or banned from publishing their findings.
The authors speculate about immediate hazards of such exploration, including possible radioactivity and harmful chemicals, with the fears reinforced by the observation that the whole area seemed to be totally lifeless, with no sign even of rats or insects. The main purpose of the Web site is said to be to persuade its viewers to keep away from such places, both by indicating the dangers and by providing a safe way of satisfying curiosity. The address of the Web site is: http://www.xvt.com/users/kevink/silo/silo.html
Virtual reality
The Web site is said to give a VR tour of the underground base. It includes a series of pictures, starting with a view from the approach track, and others taken inside. The viewer is able, at each stage, to choose which view to bring up next and the effect is a kind of VR since it as though he or she was in the cavity and able to move around. This is, of course, a weak version of what was originally understood by VR (with orientation helmets, goggles, data gloves, and full 3-D reconstruction rather than successive snapshots) but it can be very effective even so.
Others of the Web sites accessible from TrogNet show spectacular pictures of cave interiors, and interest has been expressed in compiling other (restricted sense) VR tours. Where the route is through a low passageway the taking of a VR tour is clearly kinder to the hands and knees than crawling through the real cave, and the extra similitude that might come from a more elaborate facility providing tactile sensation is readily forgone.
Moscow Times
In a recent "Commentary" it was mentioned that the free English-language newspaper Moscow Times gives extremely good coverage of events in and affecting Russia, and that its main stories can be found at the Web site: http://www.moscowtimes.ru. From early March, 2000, the Web site has been improved and now has the address: http://www.themoscowtimes.com The publishers are particularly pleased to be able to offer a site with the ending".com" rather than ".ru", presumably because access from outside Russia should be easier and faster. The new site not only gives the main items from the latest published issue, but also news updates as they come in.
Yet another free English-language newspaper available in Moscow has the title eXile, and deals with news in a satirical and strongly anti-establishment manner. It also offers its main items on a Web site with the address: http://www.exile.ru.
WOSC Web site
The WOSC Web site has the cumbersome address: http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/alexandrew/wosc.htm. The site can also be reached by opening the UK Cybernetics Society at: http://www.cybsoc.org and following a link. Very recently, Dr David Stewart has kindly made access to the WOSC site even more convenient by arranging that the address: http//www.cybsoc.org/woscleadsdirectly into it.
The WOSC address in this form is obviously much easier to remember than in the original cumbersome version. An additional advantage is that if the new form comes into general use it makes it easier for me, as WOSC "webmaster",to experiment with service providers other than CompuServe, and perhaps to set up a revised Web site with a different address. The CybSoc link can then be adjusted appropriately, so that the WOSC address in its revised form remains valid.
Choice of Internet service provider (ISP)
There is now an overwhelming choice of ISP, many of them free of charge and many of these allowing free Web space. As in other contexts there is "no such thing as a free lunch" and it is likely that a free service will involve exposure to advertising. Nevertheless some of the free services offer a great deal without obtrusive commercialisation.
It is impossible not to feel a certain affection for CompuServe (now owned by America Online, but retaining much of its individual character), because of its pioneering role in allowing e-mail and other services on now-obsolescent machines and operating systems. However, there is now the possibility of avoiding their (admittedly moderate) monthly charge.
In a recent Internet Tourbus, a Web site was mentioned that lists free ISPs and should help with the choice. The address of the site is: http://www.hereontheweb.com/freeInternet.htm. For the free services listed, it attempts to answer several important questions,the first two being: "What do I have to give in return for the free service?"and "What do others have to say about the service?". The services listed on the page first seen are those available in the USA, but there are links to other pages referring to Belgium, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland,Italy, The Netherlands, Norway, South Africa, Sweden and the UK.
The number of services listed for the UK (on a visit to the site in July 2000) was no less than 24, with helpful notes about each. The list is not exhaustive, but includes many that were new to me. Its comprehensive nature is such that it even includes a facility offered by a supermarket chain, though the fact that only one such facility is mentioned confirms that the coverage is not exhaustive.
The owner of the site, Joe West, tries to give useful answers to the stated questions, and feedback from users is welcomed. The sites available in the USA are shown along with the numbers of positive comments, and of neutral and negative comments, received for each. There is also an invitation to subscribe to a free "hereontheweb" e-mail newsletter, and an advertisement for a series of books with the general title: 300 Incredible Things to do on the Internet, where different volumes have the title slightly altered to refer to "Things for kids", "Things to learn", etc. with the same total of 300 under each heading.
Comprehensive and helpful though this site is, its coverage is not exhaustive so does not eliminate the need for some individual searching, especially since new ISPs are continually emerging.
Surveillance
The question of e-mail surveillance has recently caused much concern. Proposals for surveillance are made in the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Bill (RIP), under consideration by the House of Lords at the time of writing. One proposal is to force ISP to allow installation of a monitoring device which would be a "black box" as far as they were concerned, with the possibility of passing any particular message to a government security service.
The Internet Tourbus for July 11, 2000, reveals that a similar scheme with the code name Carnivore has been imposed by the FBI on ISPs in the USA(searchable archives of the Tourbus can be found at: http://www.TOURBUS.com. A news item referring to it can be found at: http://news.cnet.com/news//0-1005-200-2245549.html. Of course, the declared intention is to monitor messages that have a bearing on terrorism and other illegal activities, but users are naturally suspicious of such assurances of intent, and it appears that another scheme, with the codename Echelon, has already been misused.
For much of the traffic passing through the Internet security is not important. As a contributor to the CYBCOM discussion list, John Earls (in a message on March 26, 2000) puts it:
My first reaction was – well it won't bother me since I'm neither an industrialist, a terrorist, an inventor, a secret bigamist or whatever(though I certainly am a non-conformist and critic of the current global system,along with most cyberneticians).
(Archives of the CYBCOM list can be found at: http://hermes.circ.gwu.edu/archives/cybcom.html. However, John Earls became more worried when he saw the list of "sensitive words" that would draw attention to a message and realised that it included many that are often used completely innocently including liberty, freedom,protest, intelligence, detection, law, and others equally general. He has in fact suggested that users of e-mail should swamp the surveillance system by sending a great many messages, from different origins and in different languages, each containing a selection of the "sensitive words".
This suggestion strikes at a weak point of large-scale surveillance, namely the need to listen to or read a vast amount of material. The existence of a list of "sensitive words" shows that the task has been automated to some extent. This is reminiscent of a comment by Weizenbaum (1976) that work on automatic speech recognition was motivated by the possibility it offered of automatic monitoring of telephone conversations.
Echelon
The comments by John Earls were directed particularly at the Echelon scheme,which is rather more insidious than those that at least allow the managers of the ISPs to know they may be monitored. Echelon has been instituted by the British and US governments, and obtains its data by surreptitious listening-in to communications. Although the aim is to forestall terrorists there has been a protest from the French government that commercial use was made of information obtained through the scheme about tenders for an aircraft contract.
The French protest was discussed by Guy Redden in a message to the cyberspace-and-society discussion list on March 1, 2000. (Searchable archives of this list can be found at: http://www.mailbase.ac.uk/lists/cyberspace-and-society/.
Cyber-Rights
Well-informed discussion of this and related issues can be found at the Web site: <http:www.cyber-rights.org>, belonging to the organisation Cyber-Rights and Cyber-Liberties (UK), founded and directed by Yaman Akdeniz of the Cyberlaw Research Unit within the Centre for Criminal Justice Studies of the University of Leeds, UK.
Information specifically referring to Echelon is at: http://www.cyber-rights.org/interception/echelon/and at the site of the American Civil Liberties Union: http://www.aclu.org/echelonwatch/and at: http://jya.com/crypto.htm.
The ISP are of course concerned about illegal use of the Internet, and the Internet Watch Foundation was launched in 1996 to address the problem of illegal material, with particular reference to child pornography. Details, and a great deal of valuable information and comment, can be found on the Web site: http://www.iwf.org.uk. There is participation of the Internet Service Providers Association (ISPA) and the London Internet Exchange (LINX), with respective Web sites: http://www.ispa.org.ukand http://www.linx.net.
An important statement of policy can be found on the Watch Foundation site with the heading of "R3 Safety Net", where the three aspects are rating,reporting, and responsibility. It is agreed that the Internet should be no haven for wrongdoers, and that anything that is illegal elsewhere is also illegal on the Internet, but at the same time privacy and personal choice must be observed.
Encryption
One obvious answer to surveillance is encryption, and in the Tourbus it is mentioned that this is produced by a company called PGP Desktop Security, where the first three letters stand for "pretty good privacy". The software is available to buy from Network Associates, with address: http://www.nai.com, but a slightly less secure version is available free of charge, as PGP Freeware, from the site: http://www.pgpi.com
However, the previously-mentioned Regulation of Investigatory Powers Bill(RIP) has a Part III in which it is proposed that users of the Internet could be compelled to provide decrypted copies of messages, and also to reveal encryption keys and passwords.
The Cyber-Rights and Cyber-Liberties organisation has circulated letters to members of the House of Lords, arguing that the proposals in Part III of the Bill are misguided and would reduce confidence in secure communication in a way that would encourage abuses rather than prevent them. They may also seriously contravene existing legislation on human rights. The issues are complex and are discussed at length on the Web site of the organisation at: http:www.cyber-rights.org
Alex M. Andrew
Reference
Weizenbaum, J. (1976), Computer Power and Human Reason: From Judgement to Calculation, Freeman, San Francisco, CA, pp. 270-2.
