On September 26th 1983, in the Soviet Union, a computer using the latest satellite-based early warning sytem identified an incoming U.S. missile.  It was up to the watch officer to report the attack immediately to his superiors - forcing a counterattack.

The entire thing didn’t make sense to the officer, Lieutenant Colonel Stanislav Petrov.  So he let it go.

Then another attack was detected.  A few more missiles this time.  Again, why would the enemy attack with so few missiles, knowing that full-scale retaliation was the only possible response.

He decided not to immediately report the attack as was expected of him.   Had he followed protocol, the blog technology used to post this article may have never developed.

Neither would have Mad Men, True Blood, Lost, Facebook, Myspace, YouTube, broadband, the iPod, the Lord of the Rings movies, the Star Wars prequels, laptop computers, Ebay, Amazon, Starbucks, Best Buy, Lady Gaga, Guns and Roses, Madonna, and about six-billion people.

For a real education on the subject, look up “Able Archer” and “Stanislav Petrov”.   Check out this article also.  Not much on Snopes to counter that.   And always remind yourself that in the end what will save us is the quality of the people not just at the top, but at all rungs.

Considering that it’s amazing we’ve made it this far.   Perhaps it says something about humanity and people we’d normally demonize on the “other side” of spectrum.  Hitler not withstanding.