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dang

For the curious, 2017: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15210404

2016: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11851871

2011: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2211025

2009: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=948606

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We should create something like the olympiad to gather together and re-tell the epic story of danger every few years, rather than building a monument and hoping it still means something on its own.

Except that won't work in this case. This project was designed to outlive cultures due to the timeframes before radioactive waste becomes safe.

or define the cultures ;)

To be honest, I was just trying for the repeat posting meta-joke...

But, I do think that some active process and culture to guard or maintain a waste pile is probably necessary. So, don't fixate on some naive visitor you have to protect from all harm in the distant future. Settle for minimizing the delay and accumulative harm before new visitors figure it out and become the new keepers of the message.

Maybe have a competition every so often for the best pieces of art or graphic design explaining the danger. (maybe add it to the olympics?)

That way we keep this alive in the public consciences and even if the competition dies out, hopefully at least one work will survive 10,000 years.

There was an episode of the podcast 99% invisible about the facility mentioned in the OP. It concludes with the idea that the best way for ideas and messages to survive for thousands of years (and transcend language barriers etc.) is to engrave it in the culture of the people at the time. A great example, and one used by the podcast, is to create genetically engineered cats whose eyes glow in the presence of radioactive waste, and to then create culture about this idea. For example, a song / nursery rhyme that impresses the idea that when a cats eyes glow, you aren't safe. [1]

[0] https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/ten-thousand-years/ [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g78hZIEqONM

That sounds cool, but isn't it massively overengineering?

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