Yeah, staying on this off-topic (sorry) there was an interesting article I read a few years ago, about a panel convened to think about how they could clearly communicate to future generations that “this nuclear waste site is bad, and we really mean it!”
The panel roughly defined the intended message with the following:
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.
etc., and then creating the visual cues that would communicate that message.
My thinking was: that’s a laudable goal to be sure. But have such messages ever stopped modern archeologists?
Cursed be those who disturb the rest of a Pharaoh. They that shall break the seal of this tomb shall meet death by a disease that no doctor can diagnose.*
Sounds just as believable…
