Even computers that might carry the message cannot be expected to endure long enough. The second law of thermodynamics shows that all material disintegrates over time. It was soon realized by the specialists assigned the task of devising the communication system that any material in which the message was written might not physically endure the great lengths of time demanded.
So, any message dedicated to future reception and decipherment must be as universally understandable as possible. The problem then becomes how to inform our descendants that they must avoid areas of potential radioactive seepage* given that they may not understand any currently existing language and may have no historical or cultural memory. In the event of global catastrophe, it is quite possible that humans of the distant future will be on the far side of a broken link of communication and technological understanding. We cannot be sure that society won’t have slipped backward into an age of barbarism* due to any of several catastrophic events, whether the result of nature such as the onset of a new ice age or perhaps humankind’s failure to solve the scourges of war and pollution. But the belief in constant technological advancement is based on our perceptions of advances made throughout history and prehistory. Technological advances may one day provide solutions to this dilemma. Of course, human society in the distant future may be well aware of the hazards of radiation. So the task became one of finding a way to tell future societies about the risk posed by these deadly deposits. The commission entrusted with tackling the problem of waste disposal was aware that the dangers posed by radioactive emissions must be communicated to our descendants of at least 10,000 years hence. The problem, however, was that nuclear waste remains highly radioactive for thousands of years. The government was considering burying the dangerous waste in deep underground chambers in remote desert areas. In the 1980s the United States Department of Energy was looking for suitable sites to bury radioactive waste material generated by its nuclear energy programs.
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