Nuclear waste lasts a long time, like super long. We're talking longer than all of recorded history by orders of magnitude. Right now, the only way we know how to deal with this waste is to bury it somewhere and put up a bunch of signs that say "there's a bunch of radioactive material here, so put away that shovel." The problem is, language changes over time. English from a mere 500 years ago is nearly indecipherable to anyone without a college degree. How do we tell people 10,000 years in the future to stay away, without dedicating the resources to constantly maintain these burial sites? What if we get sent back to the stone age by a meteor impact, massive pandemic, or nuclear holocaust? What then?
The Sandia Report gives 9 messages that need to be conveyed:
>This place is a message... and part of a system of messages... pay attention to it!>Sending this message was important to us. We considered ourselves to be a powerful culture.>This place is not a place of honor... no highly esteemed deed is commemorated here... nothing valued is here.>What is here was dangerous and repulsive to us. This message is a warning about danger.>The danger is in a particular location... it increases towards a center... the center of danger is here... of a particular size and shape, and below us.>The danger is still present, in your time, as it was in ours.>The danger is to the body, and it can kill.>The form of the danger is an emanation of energy.>The danger is unleashed only if you substantially disturb this place physically. This place is best shunned and left uninhabited.Humans are notoriously curious, so it's rather difficult to keep them out of the metaphorical cookie jar. Especially when said cookie jar is filled with the curses of ancient gods. Written language is useless, as has been covered, and word of mouth is dodgy at best. So it's down to symbols to communicate the message of "bad, stay away." These range from fairly tame, like a grimacing human face, to badass, like so-called "hostile architecture" (pic related)
So, my question to you and the purpose of this thread is, what is YOUR solution to the problem of communicating danger to future
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