Inukshuk: Substitute for a Person

Posted February 22nd, 2010

The Wall St. Journal has an article about the 2010 Olympic symbol and logo, the inukshuk. This stone sculpture(or pile of rocks) and its many derivations are present at all venues and scattered all around the country.

The original purpose of the inukshuk was to mark the location of food caches, the direction of an important trail, or the memory of an event.  In the Inuktitut language, the term means “something that substitutes for a person.”

That definition led me to think of automated systems or “distributed control systems” in pipeline operations and other process controls.  At a family reunion, there was a discussion about the early days of pipeline right of way inspection. My father and others actually walked the line with a bag of tools.  They looked for small leaks, repaired problems with valves, and cut down weeds and other vegetation at fence rows.  I guess it was about 250 miles, since I saw an aerial mile marker along the pipeline yesterday on the drive home from the reunion.

Now an airplane or one person in a truck patrols and inspects the right of way.  And most pipeline facilities have modern communication and programmable logic controllers to perform operational tasks.   These inukshuit (plural form) are substitutes for many people.   A few individuals in a remote control center monitor and control the inukshuit.

This modern practice is not good or bad; it is the way of the world. I was bemused and intrigued by the similarities and differences between ancient substitutes for a person and today’s substitute for a person.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 22nd, 2010 at 1:03 pm and is filed under Human Factors, In the News, Observations.