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The question is posed: "If we use the Digital Earth to verify the results of an audit (e.g. land cadastre) conducted in a traditional format, who can verify the Digital Earth itself?" The answer is, "The Digital Earth can audit itself. Only you have to teach it to do it". The mechanism of self-checking is proposed to be realized through autoreflexion. If Digital Earth is "taught" autoreflexion, there are no obstacles to the transition to peer-to-peer reflexion and multirange reflexion. The reflexive model of the Digital Earth is discussed both in the case of ordinary introspection (auto-audit) and in the case of multiple ranks of reflexion. The way of inclusion of the person in the digital network as a support structure of the Digital Earth is discussed. At the next level of development the reflexive Digital Earth becomes recursive, which means development toward the noosphere as understood by academician Vladimir I. Vernadsky – the thinking Digital Earth. Finally, at the highest stage of development Digital Earth will understand man and humanity.

For the first time ever, the status of a cosmonaut of the Russian Fede-ration shall be treated not only through the review of the legislation or a separate regulatory act but also through the summarization of practical activity in the area of manned cosmonautics.The history of shaping a legal status of a cosmonaut has started since 1960. Over the first two decades of manned cosmonautics, four Regulations on cosmonauts of the USSR have been introduced and refined. However, for a quarter of a century in the Russian Federation, the practical space activities have been running without any instrument regulating the legal status of a cosmonaut. During the period 1992–2017, the preparation of the Regulation on cosmonauts in the Russian Federation was facing serious obstacles.The Regulation on cosmonauts of the Russian Federation approved by the Russian Government in 2017 has significant drawbacks and gaps. A list of challenges of the legal status of a cosmonaut to be addressed is provided. It is expected to supplement the Regulation on cosmonauts by new standards pertaining cosmonaut’s rights and obligations based upon space expertise.It is proposed to define the concept "cosmonaut" and cosmonaut’s job descri-ption using four components: speciality "cosmonaut", qualification "cosmonaut", position "cosmonaut" and profession "cosmonaut". Such approach differs from the logic of the applicable Regulation on cosmonauts 2017 where the cosmonaut’s job description shall be treated as a synonym of the cosmonaut’s professional activity.The need for availability of a Model Contract for execution of manned space mission and Model Contract for preparation to execution of manned space mission is rationalized; its content is provided in sufficient detail.It is proposed to introduce an international dimension into the legal status of a cosmonaut, and in doing so not only to use the whole array of rights and privileges of cosmonauts stipulated by the international law, but also to empower a cosmonaut to act as a representative of the State both at the overseas or international manned space object.The new regulatory acts, the need for which is given rationale in the article, will contribute to bridging gaps of legal regulation in the area of space missions in Russia between the western expertise and national practice of manned cosmonautics.

The article is devoted to the methodology of training lawyers in the era of the close intertwining of jurisprudence with the natural sciences and technology. It is especially important for future lawyers to acquire technical skills and special knowledge in the field of applied sciences, both in order to correctly formulate the provisions of law, and to understand the regularity of information technology operation, the logic of algorithms creating by programmers. The discussion is based on the experience of training IT-lawyers at M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University. New approaches to solving the problem of training lawyers with nontraditional knowledge for lawyers are proposed. It is indicated that the length of the legal training cycle should be extended in comparison with the standard one. The situation is complicated by the fact that law is always conservative: time must pass before new types of relations are established and ideas arise on how to regulate them correctly. Meanwhile, the progress in the IT-sector is so rapid that new forms of socially useful relations and methods of illegal actions appear and go down in history without being regulated or prohibited by legal norms. Therefore, training programs for IT-lawyers should be updated every 2–3 years. The training should be ahead of the future challenges of the scientific and technical environment to lawyers. Without such reforms in legal education, we risk losing control over new socio-technological processes.

In Russia, like elsewhere in the world, artificial intelligence, robots and robotic technologies have been introduced into various fields of economy, and state and public life. The variety of spheres of application in which artificial intelligence in different forms is currently used and will be used in future, have implications for the legal system and require adequate legal developments that would take into account the features of these fundamentally novel and previously unknown technologies. The solution of this complex task, in its turn, involves theoretical understanding of multiple conceptual issues that can affect the success or failures of legal regulations in the area of public relations under consideration. The article considers Asimov’s laws of robotics and ethical norms that have been proposed for artificial intelligence in the Concept of development of regulation of relations in the sphere of artificial intelligence and robotics technologies for the period till 2024. The authors discuss the subject of criminal law assessment of robots’ behavior, and propose the understanding and definitions of notions like “ethics” and “lawfulness” of robots’ behavior, “ethical violations”, “offences”, “guilt” and “responsibility” of robots. The authors also analyze anthropomorphism as one of the strategies of social robotics, its pros and cons. The authors conclude that legislation should use as a starting point the functions of artificial intelligence and it should be uniform towards all emerging forms. At present stage of development, it is necessary to have a legal regime established for robots (artificial intelligence), while the legal status for them is the matter of future, when they will acquire real autonomy and will be able to carry out their own free choice of behavior.

A brief overview of the history of Digital Earth in Russia, its current status and prospects for further development are proposed and discussed in this chapter. The anticipation of the concept of Digital Earth in Russian culture is demonstrated and explained. Conclusions about the specificity of the development of the concept of Digital Earth in Russia due to its geographical, historical and cultural characteristics are drawn, and development factors are revealed. The vital need for the concept in ensuring the effective governance and sustainable development of the country is emphasized. Theoretical and applied results achieved by the Russian Digital Earth community are presented. Special attention is paid to the outreach of the Digital Earth vision to state governance, business, society and education. The key importance of international cooperation for the successful implementation of Digital Earth in Russia is explained.

The paper considers the question of bringing the existing set of laws, regulatory and legislative documents in line with the Digital Earth - new and promising universal and global environment for the information integration on all possible scales simultaneously. Existing of 4 possible geovisualization methods is stated, typology of geovisualization methods is proposed and discussed. A practical approach for determining the belonging of visualization to a particular type, based on the use of diagrams "angle-range", is proposed. Concept of 3D-documents within Digital Earth paradigm is unveiled and explained, brief history of the developing and adopting of this concept is described, the prospects of the future evolution of 3D-documents are considered briefly.

The article describes offenses within Massively Multiplayer Online Worlds (MMOW). The use of criminal law in cases of crimes committed by the inhabitants of virtual worlds is also discussed. But what is considered a crime if it is committed in a virtual world, and under what conditions can there be a real criminal liability? The author offer his answers to these questions. The aim of the article is to draw attention to gaps in law regulating of MMOW's participants conduct. The author also comes to the conclusions that virtual worlds need internal rules and regulations and suggest appropriate algorithm for gluing of virtual and real law in cases of on-line crimes.

The article describes a physical approach to the analysis of the spontaneous cryptocurrency market. The analytic method is developed and its application is described. In conclusion, the possibilities of control actions on the chaotic market are discussed.

The Shabolovka radio tower in Moscow, also known as the Shukhov tower, is a famous example of the Russian avant-garde style of the early 20th century. With a height of approximately 160 m, it is the highest hyperboloid lattice steel tower ever built by Shukhov and is one of the symbols of Moscow. It is widely recognized as an artifact of modern cultural heritage. Despite being an iconic object of engineering and architectural heritage, it was deprived of technical maintenance for many years. Its technical condition has degraded since the early 1990s and has now reached an alarming level. Several restoration projects are still being discussed by the Russian government, including the full rebuilding of the tower in another place. Therefore, digital preservation of the tower's original geometry and design has become a crucial task. Its under-documentation is also a concern: the initial project and engineering documentation is almost completely lost. To preserve information about the tower, we performed laser scanning and created a precise polygonal 3D model using both the results of the scanning and the existing drawings. The transition from an unstructured point cloud to a highly structured representation included the development of a special methodology to model deformed steel elements of hyperboloid sections. The tower was scanned from seven viewpoints, resulting in a 65 M point cloud. To reproduce the individual shapes of twisted rods and rings, we used > 4 K pre-defined cross-sections. These were precisely positioned in a point cloud. The connection joints of steel elements were modeled using drawings based on measurements that were made in 1947. Non-original design elements such as service platforms and an elevator were also modeled using the point cloud. We also made use of historical drawings and photographs to represent the internal structure of the concrete basement and the non-extant original superstructure. The combination of various methods of 3D modeling for different parts of the tower allowed us to visualize the geometry of the huge steel construction with high accuracy (1 cm or so) and with high level of detail in a reasonable timeframe (300 man-days). Public access to large 3D models and to vast amounts of raw data is a sensitive issue for virtual heritage applications. To provide free access to our results, we created an open-source software application based on Open Scene Graph. It supports stereo visualization of the point cloud and the 3D model, as well as management of the visibility of different layers of the model in accordance with its lifecycle period. A light web-version based on Unity 3D is also being developed to provide Internet access to the model. The software is freely available at our website ( http://virtual.ihst.ru/shukhov-tower.html ). Thus, we created a comprehensive visual representation of a steel lattice radio tower of the early 20th century and shared precise technical documentation with researchers worldwide. The experience that we have gained can be useful for other similar projects that involve precise polygonal modeling of large-scale objects of modern cultural heritage.

The article describes the practice of applying laws on computer crimes in the Russian Federation, as well as the situation with computer security and the training of specialists in the field of computer law.

The study addresses the implementation of the project “A Virtual Model of Denisova Cave in the Altai Mountains” generating a 3D model of the cave and pinpointing certain key finds. The project includes the elaboration of software for interactive visualization in the virtual space of the cave. Apart from information about this unique site, the model is aimed at solving certain research problems. This is the first Russian attempt to create a virtual 3D model of a cave site.

The primary motive for this article is that the Lightcraft project is far more likely to make progress toward its realization when an adequate plan is made available. The role of technical and social dimensions should be discussed on a multidisciplinary basis, since here are many useful ways to speculate about the future. This article is concerned with identifying certain non‐physical trends that seem to be influencing the substance of the Lightcraft project.