This week a host of writers have come forward to say something about the events of 11 September 2001, and to provide some kind of account of the events since. This one looks at the event obliquely. Is it is easier to write when you aren’t staring into the abyss? Or is it just that a topic with less traffic around it gives the reader a little space for contemplation?
In the spirit of the moment, here are two ways to contemplate annihilation from a wide angle:
- The Finns are building the world’s first permanent nuclear waste storage facility, sealing hazardous material underground until it becomes safe again in about 100,000 years. It is difficult to imagine what things will be like 100,000 years into the future, considering that modern humans have only existed for 200,000 years. And this presents a unique communication problem: the warning signs installed at the Onkalo nuclear waste tunnels must be capable of communicating danger to whomever, or whatever, might be around to read them in the very very distant future. There is a very pretty documentary on topic called Into Eternity (which is definitely worth watching, though I can’t fully endorse it because the director takes himself at least as seriously as his subject).
- Here is an interesting article about the reinsurance industry. Reinsurers are the people that insure insurance companies for the kinds of catastrophes that would otherwise send them out of business. Their business is imagining the unimaginable, modeling it and putting a price on it.
