Nuclear scientists, who seem to have some time on their hands, have been scratching their heads over how to write warning signs around nuclear waste sites so that they will be intelligible to people in the future after our civilisation has collapsed.
If this is a concern, might we humbly suggest that the best way to solve the problem is to help ensure that our civilisation does not collapse?
I usually find it easy to agree with Mr. Szondy's comments, but this time I can not do so. It is a bit ironic that today's bloggobits included a reference to the story of Solon and Croesus, as this story in particular concerns an erroneous conceit of immortality. Ten thousand years is a long time. Medieval Europe admired Roman civilization, but the languages of Europe have drifted pretty far from Latin. Who speaks Sumerian these days? What about the language they wrote with Indus Valley script? And this is a bit over half of 10000 years! I think it is an interesting exercise to come up with something that will remain understandable after this much time. We can (probably) expect our audience to be human, but I doubt that it will understand cultural references to Gilligan's Island---that would be slightly scary!
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