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Stanislav Petrov, a Soviet officer who averted nuclear war, has died

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Re: Stanislav Petrov, a Soviet officer who averted nuclear war, has died

#41

Post by tryingagainbro »

sien wrote: post #35

The USSR put the first objects and people into space. They also built armaments that could compete with NATO's best. Meanwhile, today in North Korea it's pretty different. Who knows what kind of systems they have in place to detect US attacks and how faulty and flawed they are likely to be and how unstable the people on top of them are and it's really something to fear.

Who knows what kind of systems they have in place to detect US attacks and how faulty and flawed they are likely to be and how unstable the people on top of them are and it's really something to fear.

It's easier, there the top leader decides and he loves his life: "Should you launch something at us, we know where you are (show a few slides) and will launch x nuclear weapons personally at you, wiping your entire family."

USSR had a leader but also the Politburo, in NK we have everything in one, and so far for three generations. Maybe relay the same threat to the top generals and you're done. Make it personal. Not your country, but your family will go go first. The country will follow...

Re: Stanislav Petrov, a Soviet officer who averted nuclear war, has died

#42

Post by lordnacho »

sillysaurus3 wrote: post #2

When "just doing my job" saves the world. “My cozy armchair felt like a red-hot frying pan and my legs went limp. I felt like I couldn't even stand up. That's how nervous I was when I was taking this decision,” he told RT. How well would any of us have done in that situation? It's tempting to think that we'd have said no, don't launch. But picture yourself as a military commander, raised in that lifestyle. Then add t…

> I wish it were possible to make a service that lets you upload encrypted notes that will be made public after your death. But those two requirements conflict.

Don't people do this using a lawyer / testament?

If you don't want the lawyer to know the contents either, encrypt it and give the key to another lawyer.

Asking people to trust lawyers might strike some as being a bit optimistic, but I haven't come across problems with people who are privileged to my information yet. Doctors, lawyers, accountants.

You might worry about the guy's infosec, but then I counter a lawyer is more likely to use a safe or other non-digital tech than most people.

Re: Stanislav Petrov, a Soviet officer who averted nuclear war, has died

#43

Post by int_19h »

greglindahl wrote: post #32
tscs37 wrote: post #22

I first heard of his death in a very niche subreddit and only by chance. He died in May and only now we know it. I was wondering how long it'd take for mainstream media to pick up. He was truly a hero, without his reaction a good chunk of this planet would be nuclear wasteland.

Mainstream media? This is an rt.com article, a mouthpiece for the Kremlin.

Its affiliation doesn't make it any less mainstream.

Re: Stanislav Petrov, a Soviet officer who averted nuclear war, has died

#44

Post by leeoniya »

sillysaurus3 wrote: post #39
MichaelMoser123 wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder if there are other, still classified instances where the weapon has almost been launched. If lt. colonel Petrov was aware of the limitations of the early warning system then there must have been other faults as well - I bet there have been problems with the early warning system on both sides...

Ever hear of the bomb the US accidentally dropped on the mainland? When they recovered it, they discovered the bomb had armed itself and that all the safety mechanisms failed except one.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1961_Goldsboro_B-52_crash

Re: Stanislav Petrov, a Soviet officer who averted nuclear war, has died

#46

Post by tscs37 »

executesorder66 wrote: post #40
tscs37 wrote: post #22

I first heard of his death in a very niche subreddit and only by chance. He died in May and only now we know it. I was wondering how long it'd take for mainstream media to pick up. He was truly a hero, without his reaction a good chunk of this planet would be nuclear wasteland.

Which subreddit was that, if you don't mind?

/r/slatestarcodex if I didn't typo on my phone.

It's an interesting sub, sometimes a thought provoking article bubbles up to my front-page which is always a bit of a joy, Tho sometimes a bit of garbage bubbles up too.

Re: Stanislav Petrov, a Soviet officer who averted nuclear war, has died

#47

Post by kk_cz »

int_19h wrote: post #43
greglindahl wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mainstream media? This is an rt.com article, a mouthpiece for the Kremlin.

Its affiliation doesn't make it any less mainstream.

I think OP might have been disputing the "media" part rather than the "mainstream" part.

Re: Stanislav Petrov, a Soviet officer who averted nuclear war, has died

#48

Post by AstralStorm »

whiteandnerdy wrote: post #36
addHocker wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You could make a time triggered death man switch that needs to be reset every year. Else your secret is decrypted

But if the system can decrypt itself in your absence it must have access to the decryption keys. So you can't guarantee that the subsequent maintainer of the system won't release the keys after your death. I suppose you could hide the system somewhere (anonymous VPS) but then the encryption isn't actually buying you anything over what the anonymity is getting you.

You could use public key system to your advantage. Devise a cryptosystem that takes x time to crack, write a program to crack it, let it roll. If you're alive at the time of vulnerability being found, you can adjust or change the key.

Likewise it would be a good case for a proof of work system with specialized single machine input. You have to prove x amount of work every so often to keep the data encrypted.

Re: Stanislav Petrov, a Soviet officer who averted nuclear war, has died

#49

Post by legostormtroopr »

trishmapow2 wrote: post #13
Twisell wrote: post #8

This remind me of a recurring theme in "Doctor Who" fictional stories (I'm bing watching right now). There no such thing as an unimportant person because countless time in the stories the world or even the universe have been saved by ordinary people and nobody will ever know about them. Only this is real life, this is deeply amazing. I feel so much gratitude and kindnesses for this man. RIP Станислав Евграфович Петро…

Hey, it's a fellow Doctor Who fan (seems rare)! Also binge watching recently, and yes, good point.

Doctor Who fans - Rare? In what universe, Doctor Who is mainstream now.

Re: Stanislav Petrov, a Soviet officer who averted nuclear war, has died

#50

Post by mk89 »

4WIW wrote: post #25

It may be that our biggest collective luck was that the alarm happened at the time subcolonel Petrov was on duty. He was an analyst, maybe even chief analyst of the unit, he authored the playbook for the officers on duty; being on duty wasn't his main job (source: https://cont.ws/@adviser095/717098 ), he would go on duty from time to time. Due to his knowledge of the early warning system he was more likely to cast do…

Yesterday I read an article about this man, and I would say that the year'83 was not actually without (possible) escalations. On the 1st of September, a Korean airplane with 200+ civilians was shot because an "ordinary" officer simply sent a report that a "jumbo jet" was flying over soviet area - and it was "probably a US spying airplane" (that was the idea). Now, if this guy had mentioned "it's a civil airplane, a boeing", I am quite sure things would have been different.

The reason Petrov is to be considered a hero of old times is not just because he was able to spot a mistake, but to report something different from what he saw. He took the liberty to decide for an entire nation, and as he also admitted, the 12-13 minutes during which these potential nukes were supposed to reach their final destination were "really long". If he had been so certain, he'd have had no issues - he based his decision on his instinct.

If he had simply followed the rules (pretty common in a military hierarchy), we'd probably not be here today. This is what makes this man exceptional - the fact that in the end he even got scolded for not obeying the rules, and that he died "almost" in misery.

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