A problem in nuclear waste semiotics

Via Richard Harper, this thread asks how you might warn very future people away from a nuclear waste site. Alexandra Erin wrote:

An easy way to understand the problem of nuclear waste storage semiotics is to imagine what kind of warning could have been on an Egyptian tomb that would have kept Howard Carter from robbing it.

Here is some background material on how people are thinking about the problem at Yucca Mountain.  Here is a Wikipedia page on different signs and options.  Alex suggests color-changing cats.

I would think the question of how to inform a super-advanced civilization is a manageable one, at least if they have any patience at all.  Simply explain the whole truth in plain English, and give them enough English text, in durable micro form if needed, so they can unlock the secrets of English.  Also put up some images of radioactive decay.  Skull and crossbones may not mean so much to them.

What about our possible “Mad Max” descendants?  Of course that scenario means our own civilization has in some manner perished, so it is not a totally optimistic prognosis for human prudence.  So why think some silly red signs will make much of a difference?  After all, just try today to talk people out of alcohol.  Good luck.

So instead my mischievous thoughts turn to finance theory and portfolio diversification.  If the nuclear waste site is truly remote and previously unobserved and undiscovered, why not put something really good in there as recompense?

A seed bank.  Copies of The Great Books.  The text of the United States Constitution.  Proofs of Newton’s Laws.  Einstein’s theory of relativity (maybe wait on that one?…)  Design for a better medieval water wheel.  Compositions of Beethoven and Mozart.  Translation advice, some of it pictorial.  And so on.  Surely some of it will be useful, sooner or later.

Which is further reason why all of your ideas are less likely to work.  You can’t credibly commit to not giving people insurance against their bad decisions — just ask the Fed!