Re: Archiving language information (was Re: Saving endangered langs (was Re: Extrapolating languages))

Costentin Cornomorus wrote at 2003-12-26 19:37:23 (-0800)
 > --- Tim May <butsuri@...>
 > wrote:
 >
 > >  |  This is not a place of honor.  No highly esteemed deed is
 > >  |  commemorated here.
 > >  |  Nothing valued is here.  This place is a message and part of
 > >  |  a system of messages.
 > >  |  Pay attention to it!  Sending this message was important to
 > >  |  us.  We considered ourselves to be a powerful > > culture.
 > >  |  What is here is dangerous and repulsive to us.
 > >  |  This message is a warning about danger.  The danger is in a
 > >  |  particular location. It > > increases towards a center.
 > >  |  The danger is still present, in your time, as it was in ours.
 > >  |  The danger is to the body, and it can kill.  The form of
 > >  |  danger is an emanation of > > energy.
 > >  |  The danger is unleashed only if you substantially disturb
 > >  |  this place physically. This place is best shunned and left
 > >  |  uninhabited.
 >
 > Sounds like a perfect invitation for some future
 > archaeologist to go digging for Lost Treasure:
 > ...I mean, those ancients really got up to some
 > strange things - and anyway, this was just their
 > simple culture's way of keeping out superstitious
 > "energy worshippers". But WE know better and are
 > fully prepared to undertake the dig this
 > season!...
 >

Well, you don't just _say_ this; there's been some work done on
imbuing the whole architecture with this impression (so they don't
think it's just a ruse to keep people away from buried treasure).
Hopefully you make the thing sufficiently impressive that anyone who'd
consider it primitive should be able to recognize the description of a
radiation hazard.  Of course, there's no absolute safeguard against
human bloody-mindedness.

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