Re: infotainment: LANGUAGE EXPERTS SPEAK TO THE FUTURE

In a message dated 2000/06/13 04:16:01 PM, Padraic quoted me & wrote:

>Quoth on Tue, 13 Jun 2000, Jonathan Chang [quoting a newspaper article]:
>
>>    Thousands of years from now, granite obelisks will stand above the
desert
>>landscape of southeast New Mexico to warn visitors of radioactive toxins
>>buried nearly one-half mile deep.
>>[...]
>>    Their task was to communicate to strangers - to convey clear messages to
>>all visitors who stumble upon the site within the next 10,000 years.
>
>They'll probably think it's some damn temple or grave and dig it up.
>
>_Obviously_ some person of great importance is buried there, what with
>all the impressive writing, which obviously relates the decedant's
>impressive resume of sackage and slaughter. Of course, there's also
>the curious mumification process, which involves burying the decedant
>in deep chambers surrounded by tons of radioactive materials. Must
>have been some kind of religious superstition wherein the Ancients
>thought that a dead person would come into some kind of afterlife if
>nuked over a period of time.
>
    LMAO  ROTFL


>>    "If we're going to communicate with another civilization, we have to
show
>>that we're an advanced civilization. The first impression could make a big
>>difference."
>
>Too late for that! Barring ftl communications or travel, anyway. Once
>they see what kind of crap our television signals are polluting the
>universe with, they'll not want to stop!
    I can imagine some race of warlike beings saying "WoWzA! These _Homo
Sapiens_ are a soft, clownish species... we can easily _______ them!!!" (fill
in the blank with any aggressive, imperialistic action you can imagine)
    Some may even wonder how we taste like... hehe.