Nuclear near-misses

From Wise Nano

"Well, we've survived with nuclear weapons for half a century. Why can't we survive nanotech?"

We almost didn't survive.

Picture this: You're an officer in the Soviet military. You're on duty in the command bunker. Your job is important, but usually boring: If the Americans attack, you analyze the satellite data and give the order to counterattack.

Suddenly, alarms blare. A missile has been detected, streaking in from America. Soon, another. Three, four, five. You want confirmation, but the ground-based radar is inadequate: by the time it tells you anything, it'll be too late to launch a counterattack.

You have to make a split-second decision. You're wondering why the Americans launched so few missiles. But your country is threatened. Your orders are clear: In these conditions, you must launch a counterstrike. And you know that whatever happens, you are responsible. The pressure is intense.

This happened! On September 25, 1983, Stanislav Petrov faced exactly this situation. He wasn't even scheduled to be on-duty at the time. Fortunately, he was; and as a software engineer, and knew the satellite system was unreliable; and he had the moral courage not to launch a counterstrike.

If someone else had been in his seat, there's a very good chance we would not be here today.

It's unthinkable, but it happened. Have we gotten so much wiser since 1983? Will we be able to respond correctly, time after time, in the face of far more complex and diverse threats?

For more information on this event, see this website dedicated to him or wikipedia:Stanislav_Petrov. By the way, Petrov's career did not survive the incident.