Sept. 26, 1983: The Man Who Saved the World by Doing ... Nothing | Hacker News Reader

Sept. 26, 1983: The Man Who Saved the World by Doing ... Nothing

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200 pointsVMG29 comments

What I find most interesting about this event is that there is really no consensus on what would have happened had he believed the alert to be genuine. When he received an award at the UN in 2006, Russia felt the need to declare that they would not have launched a counterattack without confirmation from other sources. I think it's a good example of how history is far more subjective that we like to think. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanislav_Petrov

What we really don't know is whether the Soviets actually would have followed that policy or whether they just said that to save face.

Even the soviets probably don't know that for sure.

The implication of your post being, of course, is that they likely wouldn't have. Because they are, duh, Soviets?

In Soviet Russia, policy follows you.

Did I do that right?

History and journalism. The story, from a journalist's perspective, becomes too complex if a more complete analysis was included. To write, for example, that the Soviets had a detailed system of approvals which were designed to act as redundancies in the event of errors in launch detection technology or decision-making would muddy the very clear, familiar (and frightening) story that a single man saved us from disaster.

There's also an element of western propaganda and bias here too of course. It was in the interests of western nations at the time to paint a picture of an incompetent and reckless Soviet government and to showcase stories of western-style individual heroics.

All this said, if Petrov genuinely saved the day, it is absolutely worth celebrating. But we will never know for sure if he did.

It depends on if there were other sources they could rely on in time? Any idea what the travel time of these nukes would have been if they were real? Presumably in the event of a real attack they would want there missiles in the air before they probably got hit as some of the first targets.

What happened to the last post about this that was at the top of the front page? http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1728683

I reposted it because frankly nobody knows what Petrov Day is and chose a more informative headline

Hate to be a nitpick, but doing nothing is slightly different than not doing something (a specific thing). That aside, it's a great testament to why authority should be questioned and decisions should always be filtered through the mind.

Yep. See also the story about General Sir Mike Jackson, without who the Yugoslav war might have taken a completely different turn.

I found an interesting quote at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6216808.stm

During the mission his strong character famously resulted in a clash with his American commander General Wesley Clark.

When ordered to intercept Russian forces which entered Kosovo without the alliance's agreement he refused. "I'm not going to start the Third World War for you," he is reported to have told General Clark

-> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Jackson#High_command

I don't think it's fair to say he did nothing. He did two very important things:

1) Analysed the available information and determined that it was a false alert.

2) Actively passed on his assessment that it was a false alert to his superiors.

So it would be fairer to say "Man Who Saved the World by Using His Smarts and Responding Decisively."