Well, I thought today would be a good day to bring up an idea that I've been mulling over for a long time.
Truth is, humans should stop caving altogether. It's inefficient. We're big!
Instead, we should be focusing our energies on training smaller critters--specifically, weasels and ferrets, to cave for us. With helmet cams, we can see what they see. With advance simulation technology, we can feel what they feel. But they can go in such smaller spaces!
In the northeast, this would probably increase the total explored passage length of many caves by a factor of 10!
For the rest of this post, I am going to focus on weasels, but what I am saying applies equally well to ferrets. Perhaps other small animals as well!
I am posting this in the Equipment Forum because the replacement of human cavers with weasels--which is, if you really think about it, inevitable--will spawn a new ultralight gear revolution.
How thick would the ropes need to be? Would 3mm cord work? Monofilament fishing line? Would rescue teams made up by and for weasels be able to use 10.5mm rope instead of 11mm? How thick does a rope need to be to withstand a factor-1 fall of a weasel's body mass, and produce under whatever the peak impact force is that hurts weasels?
What climbing system would best suit weasels? How would it be constructed? What processes would be used to machine weasel-sized ascenders?
What is the best cave pack for a weasel? Perhaps SWAYGO will come up with a waterproof weasel pack that starts at the size suitable for a small human and rolls down to fit a weasel! Then at least small people can still feel like they are useful in a cave, for another few years, before weasels and ferrets take over altogether.
What should a weasel pack in his/her pack? How much water? How much food? How much webbing or cord for handlines? What should go in a weasel first aid kit? What kind of closures for packs and first aid kits could a weasel operate? Can weasels be trusted with knives, or do we need to build weasel-sized EMT scissors?
How thick does a wetsuit for weasels need to be? Weasels could do so much more low-airspace passage than humans...
Assuming a weasel can get certified for cave diving, and we figure out the decompression tables for weasels, there are still other issues to consider. Even with reduced-size gear, I think that there would, comparatively, be considerably more "dead air space" than for humans, which might make it difficult for weasels to breathe normally. Is Hogarthian style--breathing the long hose--workable for weasels? Well, if not, then that's not a suitable alternate air source for the weasel's buddy either, now is it? Finally, someone has to train these critters--but you can plainly see, if a weasel and a human go cave diving together, and you calculate when they have to turn back so that either has enough air to supply the other, they will have to turn back almost immediately due to the weasel's considerably smaller tank!
Still, the inevitable force of history and various other similar concepts are pushing forward small critters as the future of caving, making humans obsolete. We can either be obsolete and jump on this bandwagon, helping to prepare the world for weasel cavers, or we can not jump on the bandwagon and just be obsolete and pathetic. Therefore, I call on the entire caving community to join in this effort. Let's talk about gear, and how it needs to be different. Let's see if we can brainstorm the foundation for some new international standards.