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this post was submitted on 27 Sep 2025
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I assume "danger" and "drop & run" would be straightforward enough, but does casting comprehend languages cause the wizard to understand the concept of radiation (or cobalt, or how large a 'curie' is)?
That is a really good question...
I feel like radiation should have some sort of translatable element as a generic radiant danger, but for the rest... if it doesn't make sense without context in the source language, does it make sense after 'comprehend language'? Kinda feels like we need a 'comprehend science' or something if they wanted to grasp the idea of specific elements and units of measure.
"In the aftermath of repeated incidents where the public was exposed to radiation from orphan sources, a common factor reappeared: individuals who encountered the source were unfamiliar with the trefoil radiation warning symbol, and were in some cases not familiar with the concept of radiation. During a study in the early 2000s, it was found that only 6% of those surveyed in India, Brazil and Kenya could correctly identify the meaning of the trefoil symbol."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_21482
This glyph clearly portrays the object with the ☢️ symbol bringing someone back from the dead! We should consume the blue powder inside this metal case, as it's clearly a kind of medicine
This kind of symbology is never going to work. We know what archaeologists do when they understand the "you will die if you break this seal" message. Ain't no symbol is going to keep a damn human from cracking open the glowy blue box
I mean, testing showed it generally got the point across even if people didn't understand why it was dangerous
I'm curious what testing and what people. Unless it's an as-yet uncontacted tribe in the Amazon rainforest, I'm not convinced that they successfully made a universally understood sign of danger.
And even if the message gets across, I will reiterate: when archaeologists understand that a message says "entering here will kill you," it only makes them want to enter more. Future post-post-apocalypse archaeologists will treat our nuclear waste disposal sites with as much care as a 19th century British scholar would have treated the pyramids. We're a curious bunch. Best we can hope for is that we keep making Geiger counters
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long-term_nuclear_waste_warning_messages
People have put alot of thought into this exact topic and there's no easy answers
I'm well aware. Personally, I like to think of it from the opposite perspective; what message might we find that someone could have written 10,000 years ago that would convince us not to mess with something? The only proposals that work are ones that involve translating the dangers of radioactivity to new languages. Either that, or bury it deep in a place that isn't expected to be particularly habitable for a few thousand years. Every physical marker is just begging for an archaeologist to discover why exactly they were constructed
So like a Pioneer plaque but spelling out in pictogram form particle physics and nuclear decay
Lots of "stops" everywhere and and skulls in red triangles, yeah, that should be somewhat clear toa lot of people. But not everyone