Non-fiction legends from the Atomic Priesthood
In the 1980s, the US Department of Energy commissioned a report dedicated to the nuclear waste repositories. The paper would devise ways of warning future generations not to dig at the site where the repositories are located. Given that the nuclear waste had a half-life of 10 000 years, the department needed to work out solutions that would last for 10 000 years. The task was executed by a group of engineers, anthropologists, nuclear physicists, behavioral scientists, and other experts teamed in the Human Interference Task Force.
The researchers looked at all the things you can write on, but obviously, all these things last for a certain amount of time, not to mention that language changes, and words change their meaning. Even the skull symbol indicating the potential danger would have quite a different meaning for other cultures.
The main conclusion was that the most reliable way to store information for such a long time lies in the field of non-physical. Some of the historical parallels might be the well-known curses associated with the burial sites of the Egyptian pharaohs, which didn't deter robbers from digging for treasures though. But that is how the idea of the "Atomic Priesthood" appeared. This community would have to preserve the knowledge by creating rituals and legends. A linguist and semiologist Tom Sebeok concluded that you could create a legend that would last for three generations only. But if this story is interesting and important enough so our grandchildren might want to tell it to their grandchildren the mission would probably be successful.
Bottom line:
Stories make life worth living, and sometimes they keep us alive.
Story: told by Neil Gaiman
