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Comment by HPsquared | Hacker News Reader

Reminds me of this real-world example:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Interference_Task_Forc...

There is also Don't change color, Kitty, the "10000 - Year Earworm to Discourage Settlement Near Nuclear Waste Repositories".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g78hZIEqONM

Did anything ever come of this? Were the ideas ever implemented in the real world?

Regrettably, the actual markers at the WIPP burial site are far more boring and government-y: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WIPP_Large_Surface_M...

The deliberately use simple language, and then go and use "berm" in a way that makes it pretty hard to understand without knowing what a "berm" is. I know a lot of English words, but I'd have to look that one up.

It also optimistically assumes the intended readers, living in the future, will have finally adopted the metric system.

If you're fancy, make the signs exactly 1m by 1m, and say "a meter is the width of this sign". Or make the sign oversized and mark out a meter box within the perimeter, to account for edge damage.

The Wikipedia page for WIPP still mentions that "[warning information] will be recorded in the six official languages of the United Nations (English, Spanish, Russian, French, Chinese, Arabic) as well as the Native American Navajo language native to the region, with additional space for translation into future languages. Pictograms are also being considered, such as stick figure images and the iconic The Scream from Edvard Munch's painting."

A great video about Fear of Depths briefly talks about this: https://youtu.be/7MOKTU9tCbw?t=1299 (timestamped at 21:39 when they mention WIPP, but I highly recommend the whole video)

Thinking of The Scream reminded me of the man from the 'Supa Hot Fire' meme. Very similar expressions with different intentions highlight how difficult this problem is.

<o><o>!

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WIPP-09.jpeg

I heard they concluded the best sign was no sign. Any sign would draw attention to the site if it could not be understood. The best thing to do is to bury waste as deep as possible in secure and boring (geologically) locations to reduce the chances of anyone digging.

There's a common theme among fantasy stories of a race of (usually dwarves) that 'dug too deep' and uncovered something evil underground. It's interesting that this cautionary tale already seems embedded in our lore. I wonder why? Have we made this mistake before, at some point in our forgotten past?

Probably not, but it's interesting to think about.

"dug straight down" and fell in a cave... cave might have been full of something that eats flesh like piranha or bacteria, or even just angry bats...

Seems pretty trivial for this kind of lore to get started.

Yeah, or heavier than air gasses settling in the bottom of caves that silently kill anyone who enters.

Maybe those stories refer to natural fission reactors. Cursed stones buried deep in the ground that heat themselves and kill people who comes too close.

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