The linguist Thomas Sebeok was a member of the Bechtel working group. Building on earlier suggestions made by Alvin Weinberg and Arsen Darnay he proposed the creation of an atomic priesthood, a panel of experts where members would be replaced through nominations by a council. Similar to the Catholic church – which has preserved and authorized its message for almost 2,000 years – the atomic priesthood would have to preserve the knowledge about locations and dangers of radioactive waste by creating rituals and myths. The priesthood would indicate off-limits areas and the consequences of disobedience.[8][9][10]
Tradeoffs with this approach include:[according to whom?]
An atomic priesthood would gain political influence based on the contingencies that it would oversee.
This system of information favors the creation of hierarchies.
The message could be split into independent parts.
Information about waste sites would grant power to a privileged class. People from outside this group might attempt to seize this information by force.
Novelist and semiotician Umberto Eco commented on Sebeok’s report in his 1993 book “The Search for the Perfect Language”, where he analyzed whether a narrative system of communication with the future, or aliens, could be stronger than one based on written language or pictograms.[11]
The Atomic Priesthood sounds like something out of fallout
“Drop and Run” has to be some of the scariest instructions you could put onto something.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long-term_nuclear_waste_warning_messages
It’s a whole thing trying to get people to stay the fuck away from nuclear material even when language drifts over centuries.
“This is not a place of honor” booty shorts
My favorite part of this wiki is this section:
Thomas Sebeok
The linguist Thomas Sebeok was a member of the Bechtel working group. Building on earlier suggestions made by Alvin Weinberg and Arsen Darnay he proposed the creation of an atomic priesthood, a panel of experts where members would be replaced through nominations by a council. Similar to the Catholic church – which has preserved and authorized its message for almost 2,000 years – the atomic priesthood would have to preserve the knowledge about locations and dangers of radioactive waste by creating rituals and myths. The priesthood would indicate off-limits areas and the consequences of disobedience.[8][9][10]
Tradeoffs with this approach include:[according to whom?]
Novelist and semiotician Umberto Eco commented on Sebeok’s report in his 1993 book “The Search for the Perfect Language”, where he analyzed whether a narrative system of communication with the future, or aliens, could be stronger than one based on written language or pictograms.[11]
The Atomic Priesthood sounds like something out of fallout
in 2000 years you would see people converting to atomicism without even understanding it just to be based and trad