Damn Interesting has a . . . damn interesting . . . article up about the efforts being made to devise warning signs for our radioactive waste dumps.
We need to erect a warning that could be understood by people tens of thousands of years in the future. To keep these future people from, you know. Digging that crap up and poisoning the entire planet with it.
It’s like a perverse twist on “we can send a man to the moon, but . . .”
We can’t even guarantee that the CD we buy today will be readable in 15 years, but . . .
Phew.
In any case, they’d better not include any symbol, because a future society may interpret a symbol as “The Glory of God rests here” or something of the ilk, and will open the seal to the underground nuclear waste. But, it is impossible to erect a warning without symbols, isn’t it…?
Difficult.