> the genetically-modified glowcats mentioned in the article is the closest thing I can imagine that could work
Except that the proponents seem to have forgotten the small fact of evolution. Species evolve. All the time.
Over the course of a 100 century timescale I would expect the glowcats to evolve into quite different species, possibly several such species, or perhaps going extinct. It's anybody's guess, really, and whether they would retain the colour-change genetics is at best nothing more than a rather long-shot hope. Or those genes might evolve to cause the organism respond to other stimuli than radiation.
The only certainty, here, is that such creatures will evolve into something different from what they start out as, so, almost certainly, defeating the original objective.
Re:Ten Thousand Years
by Houshalter on Sunday July 27, 2014 @06:15AM
(#8092395)
10k years isn't a huge amount of time for evolution. If the gene isn't detrimental it will definitely persist in the population that long. It takes a long time for DNA to completely degrade from accumulated random mutations. We still have genes from our prehuman ancestors that are mostly intact.
Well, we don't know how to build required scientific equipment that will remain operational for more than few decades. Actually, the genetically-modified glowcats mentioned in the article is the closest thing I can imagine that could work over the timespan of many millenia.
Also, I don't see how future archaeologist would not assume anything they find is a "superstitious gobledegook" in need of verifying, if today we do exactly that.