Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Long time nuclear waste warning messages

en.wikipedia.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 45 posts

Re: Long time nuclear waste warning messages

#31

Post by askvictor »

askvictor wrote: post #30
8bitsrule wrote: post #21

Don't see any way of succeeding at graphic representation of a silent, invisible, eventually deadly emanation. Too much left-brain in most tries. The modern 'biohazard' symbol is not scary... nor is the ISO radiation sign. 'Skull and bones' is moreso. Many old Hollywood films kept it simple with warning messages posted around territories ... heads on pikes, hanging skulls, that sort of thing. They say 'Enter here and…

I was just having the discussion with my students when discussing icon designs. As a kid I always thought the radiation sign was a fan; was mildly confused by suburbs/towns which had anti-nuclear signs up - what does this place have against fans?

And reading this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hazard_symbol it seems that the skull and crossbones is now enticing to kids because pirates! Gah.

Also, the biohazard symbol was designed to be memorable but meaningless so people could be educated.

Re: Long time nuclear waste warning messages

#32

Post by leppr »

8bitsrule wrote: post #21

Don't see any way of succeeding at graphic representation of a silent, invisible, eventually deadly emanation. Too much left-brain in most tries. The modern 'biohazard' symbol is not scary... nor is the ISO radiation sign. 'Skull and bones' is moreso. Many old Hollywood films kept it simple with warning messages posted around territories ... heads on pikes, hanging skulls, that sort of thing. They say 'Enter here and…

Indeed, it seems like the biohazard sign could be interpreted as a symbol for the sun with a naked man running from it.

Maybe the primitive people back then were getting cooked to death from standing under the sun too long? Good thing we have clothes nowadays.

Re: Long time nuclear waste warning messages

#34

Post by gen220 »

This reminded me of "Canticles for Leibowitz", a book centered on a group of monks living in the American southwest, whose objective in life is the preservation of "pre-deluge" (the book was published in 1959) knowledge, to the extent that any survived. Super interesting with some fun implicit parallels to "legacy code" ;)

In one scene, a character is ruminating on what the mysterious "Fallout" might be, that their ancestors were trying so desperately to take shelter from. He pictured it as a towering monster, that prowled around hunting for people to eat.

It's a fun thought to imagine what people will think of these warning signs in 5000 years, assuming there are still people left!

Re: Long time nuclear waste warning messages

#36

Post by Double_a_92 »

aeternus wrote: post #11
squirrelicus wrote: post #4

It's interesting how, when communicating with hypothetical future people in written form, we have to choose language we have the best hope of them understanding. A center of emanating energy that is dangerous to the body and kills. Really makes you empathize with religious writers trying to communicate often second hand divine truths that people thousands of years later will have to figure out without the understandi…

Seems like they are trying too hard, and actually made the message more cryptic than it needs to be. Why not say "nuclear" or "radiation"? It seems very unlikely that the entire species will completely forget about the concept of nuclear radiation.

People from a few 100 years ago would not know what that means, even if they were capable of reading modern english.

Re: Long time nuclear waste warning messages

#37

Post by number6 »

nukd235 wrote: post #8

There's an opposite line of logic to the disposal of nuclear waste that projects such as these don't seriously consider: Bury it in such a way that any hypothetical future primitive neo-civilisation can't detect it and can't dig it up - for better or for worse. Instead of drawing attention to the dump of strange rocks that make neolithic humans sick, why not make it so unobtrusive that any enterprising future miners…

Just bury it deep and seal the doors. If they have the tools to open it up or dig it out they should be able handle it.

Also why do all these people think a) that we are around in 10.000 years or b) we are tribal people at this point?

Re: Long time nuclear waste warning messages

#38

Post by ZeKZ »

nukd235 wrote: post #8

There's an opposite line of logic to the disposal of nuclear waste that projects such as these don't seriously consider: Bury it in such a way that any hypothetical future primitive neo-civilisation can't detect it and can't dig it up - for better or for worse. Instead of drawing attention to the dump of strange rocks that make neolithic humans sick, why not make it so unobtrusive that any enterprising future miners…

If you have a facility there to dig and store the materials, it will run for decades and will be documented and archived somewhere. Someone will eventually find out about it.

Watch "Into Eternity", it talks a lot about that. The plan for Onkalo (Finland) is to use both : the caves will be sealed and hidden, but they will also place warnings inside.

Post reply on HN