The great yearning to control the entire space or the world at large has not been an easy task considering it does not just involve the control of space bodies but it involves the maintenance of their security. Various technologies have been deployed through history and up to date to the control of technology on the spatial arena which includes the space meteorites and all the bodies in space the earth included. The standard or the average technologies that have been put into use has included barriers in the form of gates for exclusion purposes and doors that serve as filters to control space bodies. This of course required superior technology that was only defined by strong and technologically advanced countries.
Political Walls or Boundaries
To begin with the concept of a wall in the virtual sense was a major security project that was developed through history so as to manage the earliest hill forts and fortresses in space. Famous examples of these walls included the Great Wall of China and the Hadrian’s Wall which were major technologies that were regarded as security concerns (Sean).
There are other walls that act as barriers against crashes or blasts from bombs that protect countries or states from suicide bombers who pose immigration threats. With this immigration walls have been set up and to some extent they act in a similar fashion to political walls or boundaries. They are meant to separate two different countries that are in great feud and death is likely to be the result. In this case they serve as preventive thresholds. These walls include: USA- Mexico boundary which also served as a political wall. The Berlin Wall constructed in 1961 to separate East Germany from West Germany. The Israeli-Palestinian Wall was a special control of the spatial technologies that were within those two countries (Jim).
Filtration walls on their part have different security loopholes or weaknesses in maintaining total exclusion or segregation of warring sides during their whole length or the utmost occurrence of an outbreak of a conflict. First of all filtration walls shut out everyone including those who are not guilty of posing any security risk or danger (Peter). Everybody will be filtered irrespective of their innocence as it mainly involves blocking those who are undesired and permitting those with a higher top social status. The poor are discriminated as well as those who lack power to voice their plea or identify their human rights and the privileged top group is allowed to live and escape trouble.
This particularly happens in areas with high mobility and in a globalized village or society. The filtering walls are deployed in such areas as tactics of prime security measures and technologies that act as barriers. They are used in areas such as airports around the world and border gateways that serve as entrances that allow passage into high security zones. These zones include military bases, chemical laboratories, power stations, and political centers, entrances into proceedings or entertainment spots. The age limit acts as a filter in this entertainment spots for example underage teenagers are restricted from entering highly explicit clubs.
Filtering walls of this caliber are controlled by sensory spatial management which employs different control measures that are inclusive of; controlling the physical space in direct physical ways and this is done through the following control measures:
- Surveillance or proper scrutiny of operations.
- Knowledge and extreme use of the five senses.
These two control strategies have technologies that are based on various aspects like:
Sensory technologies and tracking technologies enable easier forms of physical interventions in surveillance such as looking and listening. In accordance with deep or total surveillance of the body there is involvement of biological form of authentication, surveillance and control of anything that a person has on his body (Peter).
In accordance with surveillance of information spaces there are digital forms of authentication as well as surveillance and control. However, this is applied to broader forms of physical space but this is inclusive of watching, listening and applying sensing technologies. This form of information surveillance originates from direct physical roles of spies or intelligence and operative traditional surveillance which are human operative or human dependent. This is common in well recorded details that use espionage or spying in every root of civilization.
Egypt hieroglyphs expose the existence of court spies whom the early Egyptian pharaohs employed as agents of espionage to search out disloyal Egyptian subjects and also to trace tribes that could be easily conquered and finally enslaved. Their purpose was also to gather foreign intelligence who had vital information on military enemies like Rome. The Sun Tzu placed the all-inclusive treatise, which was the Art of War (Peter). This contained various chapters that dwelt on incorporation of spies both on and out of the battlefield.
The Romans in their time developed vital espionage or spying expertise. Spies generally engaged in both foreign and domestic political operations and activities. Their primary objective is to gauge the political climate, the empire itself with its entire splendor, any weaknesses with its military and the viability of the surrounding lands. This was done by eavesdropping in the forum or in public market spaces where they acted as normal civilians but they carried out their missions either with the help of the natives or paid affiliates who were willing to sell vital information.
Ancient sources have revealed information on secret police forces that were referred to as the Frumentari these were common in medieval or middle age societies. The Catholic Church on its part though religious used an extensive network of spies who played a major role in its inquisition purpose (Steve). The Catholic Church in the olden days was opposed to the idea of splintering factions and any group of people who went against the teachings were spied on and killed. This was an example of a religious wall that had been imposed and if broken then it only resulted to death.
Surfacing of national states from the 17th Century created new international intelligence especially in the European continent as well as in America. The United Kingdom on its part had a famous and an extremely skilled intelligence agency since time immemorial. One of the most arrogant users of spying techniques in the United Kingdom was Sir Francis Walsingham who at the time was the Principal Secretary to the Queen Elizabeth the First (Rod). Walsingham developed a spy and intelligence network that was highly efficient and important in protecting internal security of the United Kingdom at a very troublesome time. This model oversaw a mixture of operations which were meant to collect intelligent information about one of the most vital threats to the United States and Spanish military prowess.
This spying group was responsible for the spying activities which instigated the trial of Mary, Queen of Scotland for alleged abuse of office and this was according to Scott.
Contemporary or current intelligence organizations like the M16 and M15 which involve more state activities like the Special Branch or division of the government which is basically human operative (William & McClatchy). These are all modern security devices which are based upon collecting intelligence information and adept actions which are very crucial to the upholding of spatial security police force who spend time as in secret operatives who are used to uphold control over the street issues.
The actions of the informal agencies like NPIOU, The Mark Kennedy issue which was stone related. State operatives at this historical time perpetuated to operate through the borders in their maintenance and upholding of security in the state. Sophisticated technologies were employed by the Russian assassins for example in the poisoning of Alexander Litvnenko by the use of undetectable or untraceable radioactive materials. This was followed by the consequent assassinations of Iranian Nuclear Scientists which was said to be performed by a person called Mossad who was an Israeli security service agent (Raymond).
These killings were examples of greatly organized technologies and operations that involved teams of motorists who were riding beside cars while secretly attaching bombs to them. These bombs were automated and specifically created to self-activate themselves after carrying out remote surveillance.
The general effects of technology through history in extending or stretching further our bodies and heightening our senses has enabled people to have a higher range of knowledge and expertise. Technological variations are dedicated to watching and looking for example the CCTV cameras. Listening is also results into major technological variations through sensing bugs. Sensing in this case is used by tracking technologies or even infrared sensing technique.
CCTV which is one of the most important surveillance technologies discovered in current years rates among the highest funded crime preventive technique in the United Kingdom alone (Steve). By the end of the 1990s CCTV had sidetracked or diverted more than three quarters of its total expenditure to this country alone. Though millions of pounds were spent in separate cities in the United Kingdom still the area registered poor security turnovers. There were limited areas where these CCTV made a huge impact and these areas included car parks. The Metropolitan Police at the time noted that only a single crime is solved out of every 1000 cameras that have been installed (Raymond).
Listening technology devices have consequently replaced the dire utilization of the natural human ear in many security situations. Tapping of communication devices such as mobile phones has in a broader spatial sense been activated by placing simple bugs. Foreign embassies for example are extensively bugged and in such an instance the United States embassy in Moscow in the mid 1970s bugged were bugged by Soviet agent posing as laborers in the construction of the embassy.
This was discovered in the early 1980s where the solid concrete columns were rigged with so many bugs in such a way that the building had to be torn down and rebuilt with pure materials and labor from the United States.
Sensing technologies on their part go along way back where dogs were used in the society as tracking devices which had extended senses invisible in human beings. Similarly, others used hawks or falcons which had a wider field of view and to some extent pigs which could locate scents of specific foodstuff (Peter). In the current or contemporary times animals are continually being used as both tracking and sensing technologies. In world war two for instance cats were used to place particular bombs on enemy boats. The Criminal Investigation Agency in the United States spent a fortune 1.5 million dollars coaching a cat to be a listening apparatus. However, this plan was aborted after the cat was run over by a truck outside the Russian embassy.
Dolphins have also been taught and trained on how to establish illegal divers in the sea near military localities and when they do they inject them with carbon dioxide using their snouts. This causes them to dive, rise and resurface enabling the authorities to spot them. In Iraq dogs were used by the US military to sniff out explosives in land mines as well as rats to smell land mines. Honey bees that are properly trained have also been used to locate landmines in controlled areas. However, there are limitations when animals are used as sensory techniques.
The first reason is that they may not always be willing to comply or cooperate. They may also develop a bigger bond with their handlers thus they will not respond when a different person decides to take control. High investments have been spent on these animals as well as other automated sensory technologies. They include devices that are hand held and are able to sense chemical agents or constituents, gamma radiations and other devices that sense bad odor. The prototype system called HAMLeT for instance which stands for hazardous material localization and personal tracking (Steve).
This device was created in Germany and it can be placed behind a corridor wall or barrier and sniff hazardous or dangerous chemicals through extremely sensitive odor sensors with chips. The chips of the sensors have circulating crystals. When the electronic nose traps chemical molecules the circulation or the oscillating speed and frequency is altered. This device is majorly applied in airports and other high security sites. It is used in extending automated senses and extra sensory information which is significant to security personnel as it signifies the coming of heat or thermal imaging devices.
These devices collect data from infrared parts of the spectrum and with this ability they can easily view in the dark or in conditions where there is fog, smoke. These security measures are used in control of borders where intruders can be easily identified even when they are several miles away. In this case the distance level does not matter but what matters is the frequency of the infrared radiation.
Another major usage of this detecting device is for policing services where it is used for tracking factories that process drugs in specific areas. Moreover, this detecting device is applied in security activities that are less brutal or which pose an undefined security threat. For instance, a local authority can send one of its most significant planes as a way of identifying the radio frequency identification waves or simply RFID (Scott).
RFID or radio frequency identification is used to monitor or scrutinize livestock and majorly cattle. It is also applied in tracking or hunting animals. It is promoted by detecting smell and odor that the animals produce. This detection is slowly extended or stretched to consumer goods and in the contemporary era supermarkets in the early 2000s have raised claims that it is an exclusive barcode technology (Steve). This code provides a unique identification identity which is a numbering strategy that is called an electronic product code or EPC in short. This code gives specific identity to any object in its physical nature only once in the world. This code has no capability of appearing twice as it is definitely unique.
This code or number once assigned is transmitted by the radio frequency identity tag or signal. The signal that is transmitted in this perspective by the RFID tag is then automatically picked by a specific receiver or a reader device. This is a technology that is very cheap and affordable thus it is highly applicable.
The best objective of the RFID is to create a world that is physically joined where each and every aspect or item in the world is practically numbered, recognized, identified, catalogued and even tracked.
Security applications for radio frequency identified or RFID is during retail security and the tagging of products that are to be produced to the market. This enables ease in tracking of the products and tracing of them in theft cases where they are stolen. The supermarket or the retail suppliers and chain managers use the RFID in tracing and tracking the stock and also protecting the stock against theft as it is moved around the boundaries.
Security RFID is also incorporated in tagging of movement passports and other security documents like driving licenses. Its main advantage is that it increases the ease in reading the border points that are crossed by individuals who have or tracking devices.
They are also used in hospitals to put specific tags on hospital patients. The RFID tags are placed to specifically identify them. Newborn babies have the tracking devices that are also placed to identify the newborn babies as they are very difficult to identify (William & McClatchy).
The only weakness of RFID tags or tracking devices is that they are easily hacked by computer geeks and in the virtual world they can be read or interpreted from a far distance off for instance one kilometer away. These tags may also have details which may be utilized by criminals once they are hacked.
Another major disadvantage is that the animals that are chipped or have the tags inserted on them end up suffering from cancer related symptoms which only leads to death of the animals. This has made the organizations that specialize in using animals as trackers to have a hard time with those who campaign for animal rights.
With this in mind it is important to realize that the entire world and its space is all enshrined in a form of a boundary that exists either in its physical or virtual form. It may be constructed with human hands or in virtual sense like the Radio Frequency Identification tags (Peter).
The great longing to control the entire space or the world at large has not been an easy task considering it does not just involve the control of space bodies but it involves the maintenance of their security. Various technologies have been deployed through history and up to date to the control of technology on the spatial arena which includes the space meteorites and all the bodies in space the earth included.
The standard or the average technologies that have been put into use has included barriers in the form of gates for exclusion purposes and doors that serve as filters to control space bodies. This of course required superior technology that was only defined by strong and technologically advanced countries.
In conclusion the general concept of a wall in the virtual sense was a major security project that was developed through history so as to manage the earliest hill forts and fortresses in space and to the lives of people. The types of the walls have developed through history with each of the advancement based on the year and the country that is associated. Those who struggle to destroy the walls that have been created are in the example of spies as earlier on elaborated. With increase in technology it is difficult to determine whether the brick walls will still be used as borders or will there be tracing gases. As it stands the walls of technology have a common similarity which is prevention against intrusion.
