As everyone is refreshing their feed to get news that is quickly out of date, let’s talk about what we can learn from the complete OPPOSITE of ephemeral tweets- how experts made a message designed to discourage anyone from entering a nuclear waste site until 12,000 AD! 1/6

This was the message:
“This place is not a place of honor... no highly esteemed deed is commemorated here... nothing valued is here.

What is here was dangerous and repulsive to us. This message is a warning about danger.

The danger is unleashed only if you disturb this place”

The first part of the message depends on non-verbal cues that communicate emotionally. In the case of the waste site this was done by using (hopefully universal) symbols to communicate a top-level message. In this case: something made by humans is here, and it is dangerous. 3/

The next step was to communicate the basic idea of the site. It starts by teaching people what each symbol means, before using them in context. Basically a Duolingo in comic form for danger. 4/

The last step was to communicate the detailed information, in this case by writing it on the walls of a sealed chamber. Basically every trope from a horror movie brought to life to unsettle and unnerve. 5/

The whole report is fascinating but it also shows how experts across many fields think about the challenge of communicating with very different people over a vast ocean of time. 6/ https://prod-ng.sandia.gov/techlib-noauth/access-control.cgi/1992/921382.pdf

This is another real proposal to send a message of fear 10,000 years into the future. There is even a documentary on it: http://www.theraycatsolution.com/  https://twitter.com/ben_spigel/status/1324358776154132481