Taylor Hinchcliff

🚨 Japan placed stone warnings along its coastline centuries ago. In 2011, the ocean proved them right. Scattered along Japan's coast are hundreds of ancient markers known as tsunami stones. Some are over 600 years old. They carry one message: do not build below this point. 🔹Aneyoshi obeyed and survived 2011 🔹Some stones are over 600 years old 🔹Hundreds placed along Japan's coast 🔹Over 20,000 killed in the 2011 tsunami 🔹Towns below the markers were destroyed One stone in Aneyoshi reads "Remember the calamity of the great tsunamis. Do not build any homes below this point." The village obeyed. When the 2011 tsunami hit, the water stopped just below the stone. Aneyoshi survived. Surrounding towns that built below the markers lost over 20,000 people. A Tohoku University professor said "It takes about three generations for people to forget." Survivors carved warnings into stone because they knew memory fades. Civilisation after civilisation did the same thing thousands of years earlier. If the Japanese stones proved deadly accurate after 600 years, why do we assume the older warnings are just myths?

So Sam Altman's pricing everyone out of owning electronics, Jensen Huang and Jeff Bezos are salivating over making us rent compute, and Mark Zuckerberg's trying to legislate OS-level surveillance. Are all the tech bros in a competition to see who can out-dystopia each other?

The unbroken seal on King Tutankhamun's tomb in 1923. That piece of rope and clay remained entirely untouched for 3,245 years before this photo was taken.