This Place Is Not a Place of Honor (1992) • Hacker News Board

Re: This Place Is Not a Place of Honor (1992)

#51

Post by nicklaf » Tue, Apr 30, 2019, 12:15 AM UTC

RcouF1uZ4gsC wrote: post #15

Repeating my comment from the last discussion: This whole thing is an offshoot of antinuclear FUD. If civilization collapses to the point where people no longer realize that radiation is dangerous, then so many people have already died that a few more people dying early from radiation is just background noise. In addition, knowing human nature and our propensity for conspiracy theories, there will be people in the fu…

> In addition, knowing human nature and our propensity for conspiracy theories, there will be people in the future who think all those signs were put there to dissuade people from finding a massive buried treasure. After all, the phrasing is pretty much what you would expect if someone had buried a treasure and wanted to scare people from digging for it.

This precisely had me thinking about a science fiction plot, along those lines: human colonists discover a massively booby trapped monument left behind by some long extinct alien civilization, and make great sacrifice to penetrate into its depths, only to realize in the end that nothing was hidden underneath except radioactive waste.

Edit: walrus01 beat me to it!

Re: This Place Is Not a Place of Honor (1992)

#52

Post by grahamburger » Tue, Apr 30, 2019, 12:18 AM UTC

blhack wrote: post #26

grahamburger wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ha! That would make a great story. Mormons already have a hollowed out mountain[1] but at least ostensibly it's full of genealogical records not plutonium. (Also I'm a Mormon.) [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Granite_Mountain_(Utah)

Why so much work into storing genealogical records?

Mormons believe that some religious ordinances (like baptism) are necessary for salvation and that if a person isn't baptized while alive then a baptism can be performed for them after death. Members of the church are encouraged to research their own family history and perform these ordinances for their deceased ancestors.

Re: This Place Is Not a Place of Honor (1992)

#53

Post by saltcured » Tue, Apr 30, 2019, 12:30 AM UTC

chris_wot wrote: post #14

saltcured wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

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.

Re: This Place Is Not a Place of Honor (1992)

#54

Post by newsoul2019 » Tue, Apr 30, 2019, 12:31 AM UTC

walrus01 wrote: post #19

RcouF1uZ4gsC wrote: post #15

Repeating my comment from the last discussion: This whole thing is an offshoot of antinuclear FUD. If civilization collapses to the point where people no longer realize that radiation is dangerous, then so many people have already died that a few more people dying early from radiation is just background noise. In addition, knowing human nature and our propensity for conspiracy theories, there will be people in the fu…

> In addition, knowing human nature and our propensity for conspiracy theories, there will be people in the future who think all those signs were put there to dissuade people from finding a massive buried treasure. After all, the phrasing is pretty much what you would expect if someone had buried a treasure and wanted to scare people from digging for it. I have to agree with this. What if in 1955 America we had disco…

>> What if in 1955 America we had discovered the equivalent of these warnings, and hints of a huge artificially constructed underground tunnel complex in the same location as Yucca Mountain, and we thought it was buried artifacts from some more technologically advanced precursor or alien civilization?

What is the name of this book, I would like to read it!

Re: This Place Is Not a Place of Honor (1992)

#55

Post by mindcrime » Tue, Apr 30, 2019, 12:32 AM UTC

js2 wrote: post #48

I’m reminded of this big red sign I saw in a men’s room, just above a big red button: “ATTENTION DO NOT PUSH RED BUTTON UNLESS IT IS AN EMERGENCY” It took every ounce of my will power not to push the damn button. https://i.imgur.com/xnfVpOh.jpg

“Some humans would do anything to see if it was possible to do it. If you put a large switch in some cave somewhere, with a sign on it saying 'End-of-the-World Switch. PLEASE DO NOT TOUCH', the paint wouldn't even have time to dry.” -- Terry Pratchett

Re: This Place Is Not a Place of Honor (1992)

#56

Post by NikkiA » Tue, Apr 30, 2019, 12:34 AM UTC

PaulHoule wrote: post #3

No it's just a place where you can find enough Plutonium to destroy your enemies or enough U238 to run your civilization for 1000 years... I used to dream that maybe 2500 years from now the Scientologists and the Mormons would fight it out over Yucca mountain but now it's clear the Scientologists won't last that long.

That was basically the plot of the sequel to Planet of the Apes (the original 1968 film, none of this reboot nonsense), no?

Re: This Place Is Not a Place of Honor (1992)

#57

Post by dcbadacd » Tue, Apr 30, 2019, 12:45 AM UTC

mLuby wrote: post #45

CptFribble wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given enough time, literally anything that indicates the slightest bit of "don't go in here" will make someone ask "why go to the trouble if it isn't valuable? I'm pretty sure the only way to keep people out is to hide it.

The authors seemed to think hiding the site was impossible. However I find it difficult to believe it's harder to hide it than it is build massive earthworks all over it.

Which raises the question, has someone maybe hidden something like this somewhere already on the earth?

Re: This Place Is Not a Place of Honor (1992)

#58

Post by njharman » Tue, Apr 30, 2019, 1:02 AM UTC

RcouF1uZ4gsC wrote: post #15

Repeating my comment from the last discussion: This whole thing is an offshoot of antinuclear FUD. If civilization collapses to the point where people no longer realize that radiation is dangerous, then so many people have already died that a few more people dying early from radiation is just background noise. In addition, knowing human nature and our propensity for conspiracy theories, there will be people in the fu…

This isn't for humans. Its for the next hominids after we are gone.

Re: This Place Is Not a Place of Honor (1992)

#59

Post by unscaled » Tue, Apr 30, 2019, 1:05 AM UTC

nixpulvis wrote: post #23

jakebasile wrote: post #12

I feel like there's something to think about here since we couldn't even keep the page with this information active for a decade and the goal is to keep the actual warning around for 10,000 years.

Or, to realize that we did in fact keep it active, just through archive.org, the modern day Library of Alexandria on steroids. EDIT: Makes things hard if the warning sign was a link however, yes. Could just add a published date then, and I'd assume things would be fine.

Until somebody decides to mess with the robots.txt on that domain and archive.org removes the copy...

Re: This Place Is Not a Place of Honor (1992)

#60

Post by ls612 » Tue, Apr 30, 2019, 1:06 AM UTC

dcbadacd wrote: post #57

mLuby wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The authors seemed to think hiding the site was impossible. However I find it difficult to believe it's harder to hide it than it is build massive earthworks all over it.

Which raises the question, has someone maybe hidden something like this somewhere already on the earth?

Aside from the fact that we'd notice something that radioactive today. It is easy enough to hide something from being seen, it would be harder to hide it (especially something as carefully monitored as radiation) from a technologically advanced civilization.