
Watchers of the earth - hownottowrite
https://aeon.co/essays/indigenous-myths-carry-warning-signals-about-natural-disasters
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Smaug123
The first thing that sprang to my mind was this fascinating document about how
to create a long-lasting notice that a nuclear waste site is extremely
dangerous.

[http://www.wipp.energy.gov/picsprog/articles/wipp%20exhibit%...](http://www.wipp.energy.gov/picsprog/articles/wipp%20exhibit%20message%20to%2012,000%20a_d.htm)

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leggomylibro
This was a very interesting read - I'm sure it's fairly well-known, but I
hadn't seen it. Thanks for sharing!

There's definitely something chilling about the way that this
multidisciplinary team chose to describe radioactivity in the most stark,
basic terms. It almost has an element of cosmic horror about it - this passage
describing their rough summary of the message would not be out of place in a
Lovecraft novel:

    
    
      This place is a message...and part of a system of messages...pay attention to it!
    
      Sending this message was important to us. We considered ourselves to be a powerful culture.
    
      This place is not a place of honor...no highly esteemed deed is commemorated here...nothing valued is here.
    
      What is here is dangerous and repulsive to us. This message is a warning about danger.
    
      The danger is in a particular location...it increases toward a center...
      the center of danger is here...of a particular size and shape, and below us.
    
      The danger is still present, in your time, as it was in ours.
    
      The danger is to the body, and it can kill.
    
      The form of the danger is an emanation of energy.
    
      The danger is unleashed only if you substantially disturb this place physically.
      This place is best shunned and left uninhabited.
    

Similarly, their notes on designing the very form of the structures to
reinforce the message of repulsiveness and sickness would also fit into
Lovecraft's Old Ones' grim labyrinths. Kind of an interesting similarity. But
I guess that his writings often were of people trying to contain horrors which
would live long beyond those who had imprisoned them.

Well, hopefully fact won't follow fiction in how people will react to these
messages in the future.

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mysterydip
While I think it's a good effort, ultimately it would fail to have an impact.
If archaeologists uncovered a similar message today, what would our modern
reaction be? Probably a mix between curiousity and arrogance ("we can handle
it")

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jacquesm
We did uncover many such messages, only we had some problems deciphering the
script. And so we forged ahead and for the most part we survived going into
the places that were forbidden to us by the various gods of the past.

Curiosity killed the cat for a reason.

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GuiA
Not mentioned in the article but related, Japan has a rich history of "tsunami
stones" that mark points below which it's unsafe to build.

[http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/21/world/asia/21stones.html](http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/21/world/asia/21stones.html)

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kissickas
The title on the article is so much more descriptive. Can it please be edited
to match?

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dang
I think we can leave this one. HN's goal is to gratify curiosity. That isn't
best served by spelling everything out, so it's ok to have a vague title or
two.

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nine_k
Clickbait also is based on whetting curiosity. I'd rather have a descriptive
title so that I knew what lies ahead, than an enticingly mysterious title
("you won't believe...") that I'd dismiss as clickbait.

