‘Try and’ does not mean the same as ‘try to’ – and even the best writers make this mistake

By Steve Finan

September 15 2019, 6:00pm

I’ve been reading about the problem of nuclear semiotics. It’s a question of communication.

Semiotics is the study of signs and signals, “nuclear” is added because we have a great problem with the atomic waste buried by various nations in the past 70 years. It will remain dangerous for thousands, possibly millions, of years so we need long-lasting “keep out” signs to warn future generations.

But what language do we use to write the signs?

Language will change. The epic poem Beowulf, written in Old English 1000 years ago, is now difficult to decipher. Further, it took decades to understand Egyptian hieroglyphs even with the help of the Rosetta Stone. And hieroglyphs were in use only 2000 years ago. If humans exist a thousand centuries into the future, what language will they use?

We could put up cartoons of people dying when they open the concrete casings of atomic waste containers. But then, isn’t that the plot of most Indiana Jones films? The hero forces open a treasure cave, ignoring the “Danger, wrath of the gods” carvings?

Disaster, disease and destruction might rain upon mankind, but whatever we have become after a further 30,000 generations we’ll probably still be curious, greedy and act like characters played by Harrison Ford. If we find an ancient tomb marked “keep out”, we won’t.

Various other proposals have been made. For instance, the creation of a religion (religions last through generations) that warns of the consequences of opening concrete barrels. But there is no guarantee the message won’t become skewed. Or that this, or any, religion will persist.

Another idea is to carve warnings on granite monoliths in current languages, with an instruction to future humans to translate and update when necessary. But will that idea outlast a meteorite strike, biological warfare, or council cuts to spending on monolith upkeep?

Possibly the wisest idea is to dig as deep as possible and put warnings in many languages, plus pictographs, on the door of the chamber. Fill the entrance shaft with rock and concrete and landscape over it to look like part of the countryside. Then try to forget it. Only an advanced civilisation will have the technology to re-bore down, so should also be clever enough to decipher the warnings.

The last option sticks in the craw of anyone who admires the richness of written human communication — but will make sense to anyone who understands humans.