Radiation cats and atomic priesthoods: the Human Interference Task Force

The question of how to mark the places where we store nuclear waste such that people in the distant future won’t do things like build towns or nurseries or farms on top or inside of them is one of my favorite transmedia design challenges. It’s a thought experiment that asks us to imagine a way to communicate with a diverse and unknowable range of cultures and attitudes across a vast gulf of time. Nuclear waste can take upwards of 20,000 years to decay.

Solutions to the problem, such as those proposed by the Human Interference Task Force, a workgroup formed in 1981 by the US government, include the construction of monumental reinforced concrete architectural elements (obelisks, pyramids, and so on, all inscribed with a range of frightening DANGER! symbols), the breeding of super-friendly genetically-engineered cats that change color in the presence of radioactivity, and the establishment of a multi-millennium-scale religious order or “atomic priesthood”.

More info: Wikipedia: Human Interference Task Force, Deep Time: How Humanity Communicates Across Millennia

This entry was posted in Blog and tagged , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

2 Responses to Radiation cats and atomic priesthoods: the Human Interference Task Force

  1. D.M.G. says:

    How far are these human interfence task force executed? Were is the oficial info? Is there any oficial info at all?

  2. Jeff Watson says:

    Apparently there is a government report from 1984 here: http://www.osti.gov/bridge/purl.cover.jsp?purl=/6799619-fpYg48/6799619.pdf

Comments are closed.