Bunker and Targeting Glyphs

Sutton Glyphs

This page is intended to begin showing the untapped potential of the original blissymbolics glyphs for adaptation to DoD needs. In blissymbolics, the glyph for roof: expresses the idea of "protection" generally. Obviously a bunker is a protected area. Actually, a very protected area, so I've used this protection glyph 3 times to show this meaning.

Blissymbolics can truly simplify the expression of ideas. A bunker is simply, a deep hole in the ground that is very protected against penetration, so by vertically stretching the bliss glyph for hole: and superimposing the roof glyphs, we get the large glyph on the right, which means simply, a very, very protected hole. This glyph could be typed with my proposed bliss software by tapping only two keys on a standard keyboard.

And of course it could simply be offered as an augmentation to a military chat message when a user types the word bunker in a message and presses enter. This is the technique Sunny's people are testing in the prototype chat software.

The green dot added to the glyph versions below is a standard bliss technique for refering to specific parts of an object or idea. In this case, different levels or areas of the bunker. These glyphs could be used after a strike against a bunker, to indicate which areas may have been successfully penetrated by the strike, or which areas are believed to have been left intact. Of course, I may sound a little naiive here, never having been in the military. My experience is strictly civilian as an ex airline transport pilot, which is why I can get the air traffic control procedures down on paper accurately. More accurate knowledge of bunkers might lead to a better glyph. Bliss is very adaptable, there is more than one way to display an idea iconically, even in a disciplined, controlled system like blissymbolics.

This glyph points to and identifies the area above ground around the bunker.

This glyph refers to the space in the bunker one level below ground, one layer of protection deep. Again, I am not military, and so don't actually know how bunkers are designed. If the design is different from this, the glyph might look different. Then again, it might not because these are ideographs, not pictographs.

This glyph identifies the area two levels deep.

This one, three levels deep.

This one identifies the underground earth just outside the outer wall. The dot (as used here), or an arrow head, can be placed anywhere on a glyph to specifically identify a part of an object or concept.

Now let's try adding more information, identifying what the bunker is used for. The glyph for mind: is derived from the curved top of a human cranium. An arrow pointing to the right: means forward, or motion forward. To move a mind forward is to lead. So the glyph on the right means a bunker used for leading, a command bunker.

Now let's see what an enhanced military chat with glyphs and images augmenting the text of the messages might look like:

Some intelligence reports suggest bunker BU349 may be concealing nuclear research activity. Do you have any information or opinion on this?

I see a report here strongly suggesting the likelyhood.

Perhaps it should go on an active target list?

I would suggest the inactive target list with a tag recommending re-evaluation before the strikes begin.

Or perhaps to be on the safe side, the potential target list, the inactive list is too easy to get bumped up to active. We don't even know for sure yet if this is a bunker of any kind.

Now again, I am not military, so I don't know what these conversations actually sound like. But I wanted to make a couple points about possibilities for augmenting glyphs in a way to reduce the likelihood of tragic errors in communication. The active target glyph has red arms reaching out, just begging to get hit. The inactive target glyph pulls those arms in AND changes color. Two eye catching methods to distinguish between glyphs whose misinterpretation could lead to the deaths of the wrong people and facilites. Change of shape and color.

Now when it's time to discuss busting a bunker, we can come up with Bliss glyphs for that too. Notice the triple nose cones on the rocket indicating penetrating power matching the bunker's protection.