3 ms·

In grad school, I worked on an experiment housed at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). At least until a radioactive waste barrel exploded (because someone

by cozzyd 3y ago

In grad school, I worked on an experiment housed at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). At least until a radioactive waste barrel exploded (because someone somewhere used the wrong kind of kitty litter, for real) and the place was shut down for a while. Working underground in salt "mine" (the salt is taken out so nuclear waste can go in) is no fun, do not recommend. But one of the interesting things about WIPP is how they thought about how to mark the site as "do not dig" in a way that would last a very long time. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waste_Isolation_Pilot_Plant#Awareness_triggers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waste_Isolation_Pilot_Plant#Aw... for what they came up with...

hulitu 3y ago
The only warning in that picture is the skull. The majority of people on this planet have no idea what the other signs mean.
- svachalek 3y ago
  Yeah really as long as technological people are around, they won't be going in there. The people who need help are the post-apocalyptic Stone Age people who may follow us. They don't need the exact problem explained to them, they just need to make the place as creepy as possible. Skulls, spikes, creepy murals carved in stone.
imoverclocked 3y ago
Maybe we should start erecting a structure on top of these sites that would be very hard to move. Perhaps we build it out of stone and carve warnings into the entrances. The most resilient structure is probably some kind of pile of large quarried rock but we need it to be recognizable so it should have a fundamental shape. I guess I'm describing a pyramid which made it about 4k years before we forgot what the symbols meant and went digging through them anyway. 4/100 ain't bad for a first try though! It takes a lot of resources (today) to dig down 1400' so that might be helpful. However, it's still doable with time and motivation for practically any human society. Space is another interesting idea with its own set of issues (eg: getting waste there safely) but has the advantage of requiring a space-fairing civilization which also requires advanced knowledge, cooperation and communication which gives a better chance that simple grave-robbers don't dig something up after the decline of our current knowledge, skillsets and civilization.

by cozzyd 3y ago

hulitu 3y ago

The only warning in that picture is the skull. The majority of people on this planet have no idea what the other signs mean.

svachalek 3y ago
Yeah really as long as technological people are around, they won't be going in there. The people who need help are the post-apocalyptic Stone Age people who may follow us. They don't need the exact problem explained to them, they just need to make the place as creepy as possible. Skulls, spikes, creepy murals carved in stone.

imoverclocked 3y ago

Maybe we should start erecting a structure on top of these sites that would be very hard to move. Perhaps we build it out of stone and carve warnings into the entrances. The most resilient structure is probably some kind of pile of large quarried rock but we need it to be recognizable so it should have a fundamental shape. I guess I'm describing a pyramid which made it about 4k years before we forgot what the symbols meant and went digging through them anyway. 4/100 ain't bad for a first try though! It takes a lot of resources (today) to dig down 1400' so that might be helpful. However, it's still doable with time and motivation for practically any human society. Space is another interesting idea with its own set of issues (eg: getting waste there safely) but has the advantage of requiring a space-fairing civilization which also requires advanced knowledge, cooperation and communication which gives a better chance that simple grave-robbers don't dig something up after the decline of our current knowledge, skillsets and civilization.