Keywords
Citation
Andrew, A.M. (1999), "Internet commentary", Kybernetes, Vol. 28 No. 9. https://doi.org/10.1108/k.1999.06728iaa.009
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 1999, MCB UP Limited
Internet commentary
Keywords Internet, Integration, Systems, Cybernetics
Abstract Comments on the Internet, giving details of new facilities and provisions that are of specific interest to systemists and cyberneticians. They include: World Wide Web Virtual Library of Cybernetics; Tributes to Gordon Pask; Integrated environment; Detailed colour graphics.
The W3 Virtual Library of Cybernetics
A valuable reference site for cybernetics, in addition to those previously found by search engines and reviewed here, is the World Wide Web Virtual Library of Cybernetics, with address http://www.venus.co.uk/vlib/cybernetics.html Of the many valuable links it offers, two that are immediately seen when the page is opened are to a special feature devoted to Gordon Pask (see below), and to an important paper by Vannevar Bush with the title: "As we may think".
The paper by Vannevar Bush appeared first in Atlantic Monthly in July 1945 and is of special interest from several points of view. The author is well-known as an associate of Norbert Wiener and a computer pioneer. His main theme in this 1945 paper is the redirection of scientific effort from wartime requirements to those of peace. It can be argued that a major stimulus to the emergence of cybernetics was the search for peaceful and humanitarian outlets for the skills and talents that had been directed to wartime needs.
This argument can be developed very convincingly by reference to post-war applications of electronics in biological research, especially neurophysiology, but the paper by Bush is primarily concerned with computing and information transmission as such. He foresees the information explosion that is now with us, and discusses the use of hypothetical devices indicated by the term "memex" as a way of dealing with it. A memex allows a researcher to browse an enormous storehouse of information in a manner similar to that now achieved using the Internet.
It has in fact been argued, by Hall et al. (1996), that some aspects of the Internet and the World Wide Web as they have come into being are far from ideal as research tools, and that the "memex" development visualised by Vannevar Bush would have had advantages. These workers have developed their "microcosm" scheme that has some similarity to the "memex". The Vannevar Bush paper is therefore interesting both for its historical insight into the formative years of cybernetics and for its direct bearing on current practice.
As well as the links to Gordon Pask and Vannevar Bush, the site has numerous links to university departments, institutes, organisations, journals and individuals connected with cybernetics. It is clearly a valuable starting-point for exploration, though there are indications that it has not been updated for some time. In particular, the references to meetings and conferences are exclusively (at the time of writing) to events in the year 1996.
The Virtual Library of Cybernetics is intended to be one among other virtual libraries treating specialised topics, and there are links to some of them, including Artificial Intelligence, Cognitive Science and CyberVR. Here again, however, there is evidence of failure to maintain some of the sites. The Virtual Library for Artificial Intelligence exists, with address http://www.cs.reading.ac.uk/people/dwc/ai.html, but I had no success in trying to open either the one for Cognitive Science or that with the intriguing designation of CyberVR.
The Virtual Library for AI appears to be an extremely useful facility. It contains links to many important sites, and is maintained by a member of staff of Reading University, whose e-mail address is given as D.W.Corne@reading.ac.uk so that new relevant items can be brought to his notice.
The precise meaning to be attached to CyberVR has to be left to the imagination. Since the prefix "cyber" is applied indiscriminately to advanced forms of man-machine interaction, it would seem to be automatically applicable to any implementation of Virtual Reality. Its use here may have been intended to indicate VR operating at a distance, possibly through the Internet, in which case it would have invoked the mysterious realms of MUDs and MOOs (respectively multi-user domain and object-oriented multi-user domain, terms for virtual domains in which individuals interact, often seen and heard by the other participants in bizarre forms). It is a pity the site could not be opened.
Tributes to Gordon Pask
Gordon Pask died on 29 March 1996. The web page headed "Gordon Pask – In Memoriam", with the address http://www.venus.co.uk/gordonpask/, has links to a valuable collection of items relating to him. At the time of writing (end of March 1999) a link is still shown with the message: "contact us if you wish to contribute". Several of the items are obituary notices that appeared in various newspapers and journals, including that by Bernard Scott in The Independent and that by Paul Pangaro in The Guardian.
A particularly interesting item is an article by Ranulph Glanville entitled: "Robin McKinnon-Wood and Gordon Pask: a lifelong conversation". It was published in The Journal of Cybernetics and Human Learning but may be reproduced freely. It embodies the spoken presentation made by Ranulph at the EMCSR in Vienna in 1996, shortly after Gordon's death. The formal paper he had expected to introduce can be found in its printed form as Glanville and McKinnon-Wood (1996). The text appearing at the Website is a highly perceptive account of Gordon's life and work, starting with his association with Robin McKinnon-Wood in the firm Systems Research. (Robin McKinnon-Wood had died in the preceding September.)
The significance of Gordon's contributions, and particularly of Conversation Theory, is discussed here in a frank and sincere way that I found convincing. The reader is assured that CT has profundity that many people have failed to grasp, and it is acknowledged that it is not easy to assimilate. I have to admit to being somewhat baffled by Gordon's later work, but reading this account has spurred me to make a fresh effort.
Two university sites
Two university sites that are well worth visiting are provided respectively by the Universities of Glasgow and Reading. Glasgow University is particularly proud of its site giving access to the Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery, with address http://www.gla.ac.uk/Museum A feature that may be of special interest now that currency revisions are in the news is a large coins and medals gallery, illustrating coinage, and aids to commerce that preceded coins as such, from ancient times to the present.
Reading University has an award-winning site devoted to the new Globe Theatre in London. The address for this is http://www.reading.ac.uk/globe The English department of Reading University has been heavily involved in research associated with the project. When the Website is opened, the user can choose between: "Shakespeare's Globe: a brief online guide to the reconstructed playhouse in London" and "Shakespeare in Performance: an online archive about the Globe from 1599 to 1999". The material is beautifully presented, with computer-generated views of the theatre interior and performances.
Integrated environment
One feature of the integrated Internet or Web access in modern computer systems, mentioned in an earlier Commentary, is that "clickable" links to Websites can be found in unexpected places. That is to say, a piece of text can be such that placing the mouse pointer over it and pressing (clicking) the mouse button opens a page of a Website for display on the screen. (There may be some intervening dialogue to obtain the user’s permission to open the Internet connection if it was not already made.)
E-mail messages, for example, may be actually in HTML (hypertext markup language) and may then contain such links, even though the messages may be received as simple text on earlier versions of Internet software. The twice-weekly missives from the Internet Tourbus contain many Website addresses which appear in simple text in a curious repeated form as: http://www.TOURBUS.com
The particular Website address appearing in this is that of the Tourbus archives. Its second appearance (in the lower line as printed) is the effective address for the HTML linking process, while the first appearance, within quotes, determines what appears on the screen when the message is interpreted as HTML. The text on the screen is distinguished in some way, usually by underlining and by colour, to show that it denotes an HTML link. The screen text need not be a repeat of the Web address, but can be any other caption that indicates the Website content.
The possibility of embedding links in text in this way is particularly useful when a reference work such as an encyclopaedia is made available for online use, for example as a CD-ROM. An impressive example is Compton's Interactive Encyclopedia, whose 1998 edition is available in this form. It is a comprehensive US production originally published in eight volumes in 1922. The edition on which the CD-ROM is based comprises 26 volumes, with 8,000 photographs. The CD-ROM has an RRP of £29.99 when sold separately, but it was included with the January 1999 issue of the journal PC Home, at a total cost of £4.99.
In the CD-ROM version of the encyclopaedia, full advantage is taken of the availability of a multimedia computer to integrate animation, video, sound, images, text and Internet links. For an enormous number of countries, for example, it is possible to display a map and the national flag, and to hear the national anthem, as well as seeing the descriptive text. Entries for the great composers are supplemented by excerpts from their works, and an admirable set of excerpts is associated with an account of the history of American jazz. As might be expected, the contents are richly cross-referenced, and can be searched in a number of ways - alphabetically, or geographically via an online atlas, or historically via a "timeline" chart, or using a search facility allowing AND and OR combinations of key words. A facility called "ShowMaker" allows users to assemble video clips, sounds, pictures, and so on, into their own animated presentations.
Internet links allow the encyclopaedia to give access to information external to itself, information that will in many cases be updated even if the owner of the CD-ROM does not avail himself of the updating facilities offered for the encyclopaedia itself. There is a reminder of the "dark side of the Internet" where the publishers show a notice to the effect that, while the encyclopaedia has been prepared for family use, and the Websites to which immediate access is given have been carefully chosen, no responsibility can be taken for what may be regarded as unsavoury material that can be found by following subsequent links from site to site. The nature of the Internet is such that this "dark side" is inevitable, though in this case rather diligent surfing would be needed to reach anything seriously objectionable from the informative and educational sites directly accessed.
The encyclopaedia lists no fewer than 4,672 entries under the heading of "Internet Directory Listings". The number of links to Web addresses is probably more than twice this, since most of the entries seem to contain two or more links.
The text entries for "Cybernetics" and for "Wiener, Norbert" are quite short, but accurate and informative. They do not have Internet links, but the entry on "Artificial Intelligence" has a link to a site with the title "MMM Artificial Intelligence Introduction" and address: http://suhep.phy.syr.edu/courses modules/MM/AI/ai.html This is maintained by an organisation in Switzerland, and gives a good overview of its topic. Its treatment starts from fundamental considerations, including the speculations of Alan Turing and comments on the nature of consciousness. Further links are given that quickly bring the reader to accounts of the biology of real brains and to a "Mind and machine home page".
Other reference works
Compton's Encyclopedia is only one of a great many reference works available on CD-ROM. Other examples include such famous titles as Gray's Anatomy and the Encyclopaedia Britannica. Compton's is noteworthy for its effective use of external links and in that respect is probably a pointer to an interesting and valuable trend.
Detailed colour graphics
Many of the more intriguing and innovative uses of modern computers, especially in conjunction with the Internet, are due to the ability to display, and to transmit, extremely high-quality colour pictures. Digital processing of photographic images is now widely used, and the associated possibilities for manipulation received publicity when they were applied to improve the group photograph from the recent royal wedding. Software has also been devised that allows an image of a face to be altered as it would be by the application of different cosmetics, or for men by the growth of different patterns of facial hair. This has obvious commercial value in connection with the lucrative cosmetics industry. Sites where more information can be found include: http://www.virtualmakeover.com and http://www.hairdesigner.com
A collection of beautiful and restful pictures of mountain scenery can be obtained in the form of three "screen savers" from the Website http://www.langdale.co.uk A "screen saver" is a moving pattern that appears automatically as soon as the screen display is left unaltered for some preset time interval. Each of the screen savers from Langdale provides a succession of colour pictures. The necessary data and software are downloaded in a compressed form that must be expanded by the WinZip facility to become available as choices from the screensavers menu. The WinZip software can be downloaded from software libraries. This pleasant type of advertising will probably be increasingly used.
A project dependent on high-quality graphics that must surely be the most ambitious of its kind to date is one funded by IBM to make much of the content of the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg accessible by Internet. Details of this, as well as access to a great deal that has already been accomplished, can be found at the site http://www.hermitagemuseum.org Not only is a large set of art works available for display, but very interesting search facilities have been implemented, as well as a security scheme to detect unauthorised copying. More will be said about this remarkable development in a later Commentary.
A note on jargon
In a previous Commentary the jargon terms virus and trojan horse were contrasted, the essential difference being that a trojan horse does not reproduce itself. A further term that is widely used is worm. There is a connotation in this of "tapeworm", so a worm is a destructive agent capable of reproduction, and therefore not clearly distinguished (in its digital manifestations) from a virus. The term "worm", however, seems to be reserved for the more destructive examples, produced by malicious programmers termed "crackers" as distinct from the relatively benign "hackers". There is even a subgroup of hackers who claim to use their skills to maintain order, and who are termed "samurai". A fascinating and evolving (and undoubtedly timely) selection of these terms, with discussion of their origins, can be found in the jargon file at: http://www.denken. or.jp/egi-bin/JARGON
Alex M. Andrew
References
Glanville, R. and McKinnon-Wood, R. (1996), "NOAH: the ark of knowing in a learning environment", in Trappl, R. (Ed.), Cybernetics and Systems '96, Austrian Society for Cybernetic Studies, Vienna, Vol. 1, pp. 449-54.
Hall, W., Davis, H. and Hutchings, G. (1996), Rethinking Hypermedia: The Microcosm Approach, Kluwer, Boston, MA.