Nyce bootes. Wanna swyve?

Sticking with the topic of language, here's a story from the LA Times that I spotted a while back: An Alert Unlike Any Other.

In short, the story is about the difficulties that are faced in attempting to place warnings around the site of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) — otherwise known as the big underground nuclear waste dump out in New Mexico.  The problem is that the warnings are going to have to last for thousands of years, and no one can say for certain what language the people who discover the warnings will be speaking, or even what they will be like.  The solution?  Brainstorm like crazy, and toss out the wildest ideas possible, including but not limited to: "feminist corporations that disbelieve WIPP warnings because they were written by men," "an energy-poor government, company or gasoline-addicted tribe in a ruined society, like those depicted in the film "The Road Warrior," [that] could adopt a "drill first, ask questions later" policy," and "self-guided robotic "mole miners" […] infected with a computer virus that compels them to override their safety programming as they compulsively drill and construct mine shafts."  (They pay people to sit around and think up these things?)

That in itself may sound like an interesting enough article, but what (in my mind) really sets it apart are some choice quotes from both the article's author, and people interviewed for it.  For example: "To future generations, warnings about Nelson's dump may seem as impenetrable as the 600-year-old "Canterbury Tales" are for all but a few scholars today," and "I understand those cave drawings and I don't speak Neanderthal…. He's killing a bison, 'bison — food!'"

There're also several interesting anecdotes and points contained in the article itself.  A partial history of the swastika is given, to describe how the meaning of symbols can change over time.  There's also an amusing story about South African miners and a series of pictographs instructing them to clear rock that was misinterpreted, and which I can't help but think may just be an urban legend.  (I have difficulty coming up with a series of pictographs that clearly indicates the proper chain of events in one direction, but could still give an alternate and coherent connotation in the opposite direction.)

All in all, while the idea is interesting, and the challenge is something that will be amazing if overcome, I can't help but agree with part of the statement of Gregory Benford, one of the former project advisors when he comments that "Any monument would become a tourist attraction."

That said, regardless of the author's strange ideas on Middle English, any article which manages to reference Project Gnome is fine by me.  (And speaking of Chaucer: Geoffrey Chaucer Hath A Blog.  "Galfridus Chauceres Lynes Of Picke-Vppe" are particularly amusing: Art thou a disastrous poll tax? Bycause I feele a risynge comynge on.)