Long-Term Nuclear Waste Warning Messages
Note: I’m neutral on the question of Nuclear power. I’m not convinced it’s the answer or that it’s horrible.<p>This post is an attempt not to argue either side of that debate but to look at the deeper intentions of the message.<p>**<p>I’ve always found this message chilling and effective at communicating the dangers of radioactivity but I have always been very skeptical that it was truly designed to sound that way to some future post-apocalyptic society.<p>Instead I believe that this is a “political” message specifically intended for the current day reader.<p>While the message has a form  that is simple and repetitive as though intended to be easy to understand or translate for  some future post-knowledge society, I’m also skeptical that it actually serves that function well.<p>There’s no evidence ever given beyond “experts came up with this” that the message would work. (Could there ever be evidence of something so unknowable as the capabilities of some far future society?)<p>I’m left to conclude that the message is a combination of conscience salving and propaganda.<p>To the people that want to feel as though a framework has been created that guards future generations against the danger of a waste facility they can plausibly claim they have it figured out.<p>To the people that are horrified by the specter of nuclear waste they have a chilling message they can point to that communicates their modern day fears and prescriptions, cleverly hidden in something supposedly intended for future generations.<p>In short, it’s a brilliantly written piece of poetry&#x2F;prose that, in my opinion, has almost nothing to do with its stated purpose.