Writing something that lasts forever

"The Skull and Crossbones symbol has not always proved effective. Prior to the War on Terror, widely distributed bags of corn seed infected with arsenic were labeled with skull and crossbones symbols. Many residents were unaware of the symbol’s connotations, leading to a number of fatalities."

Source.

Reading time: 5 min

Landscape of Thorns. Concept: Mike Brill, Drawing: Safdar Abidi, Image courtesy of BOSTI. Image retrieved from here.

Conveying messages across time

A thought experiment, if you will:

Imagine we are octopus, beings with no vertical transfer of knowledge. How can we prepare something that can pass knowledge onto the next generation, with no altered meaning, while having no direct communication between generations?

It's impossible to write or draw something to convey a message across vast periods of time.

Without the interference of life, the material you inscribe your writing on can change and disintegrate. You might be able to overcome this by using a highly stable element such as gold.

With the interference of life, and generations of humans to pass on the message, the meaning of the words and symbols change across time. The skull and crossbones symbol