Month: April 2005

The Man Who Saved the World Finally Recognized – FEATURE – MOSNEWS.COM:

Half an hour past midnight on September 26, 1983, he saw the first apparent launch on his computer monitor in a glass-walled room on the top floor of the Ballistic Missile Early Warning System (BMEWS) command and control post.

“I was supposed to supervise the combat crew. When the first launch happened, everyone was stupefied. After the first launch, I started giving orders, because in the room below, where there were five switchboards, and all the operators jumped out of their seats to see what my reaction was. I can only imagine what went on at the other posts.”

The warning system was by now showing five missile launches in the U.S., headed toward the Soviet Union. The “START” command Petrov was expected to give would have started an irreversible chain reaction in a system geared to launch a counter-strike without human interference.

“The main computer wouldn’t ask me [what to do] — it was made so that it wouldn’t even ask. It was specially constructed in such a way that no one could affect the system’s operations.” All that was up to Petrov was analyzing the available information and either saying the alarm was false or giving the computer the go-ahead, as per the directive he himself wrote.

Why Didn’t He Do It?

All the data checked out, to all appearances, the system was right on target — or rather, the missiles it reported were. A couple of thoughts flashed past Petrov’s mind.

“I just couldn’t believe that just like that, all of a sudden, someone would hurl five missiles at us. Five missiles wouldn’t wipe us out. The U.S. had not five, but a thousand missiles in battle readiness.” It just didn’t seem like any scenario considered by military intelligence before.

The second thought on Petrov’s mind every time he was on duty was this:

“I imagined if I’d assume the responsibility for unleashing the third World War — and I said, no, I wouldn’t.”

The tension must have been overwhelming — did he really have the time to consider the global context of his actions?

“I always thought of it. Whenever I came on duty, I always refreshed it in my memory. At that moment, there was no time to think, I had to work, work, work.”

Petrov reported the alarm to his superiors and declared it false.

In other words, he did exactly what an automated system couldn’t have done: he thought, weighed the facts, and made a decision that may not have been on the decision tree but was right nonetheless.

<shudder> You’ve read Fail-safe, right?

[hat tip]

Now playing: In The Morning Of The Magicians by The Flaming Lips from the album “Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots” | Get it (3)

So that’s what Negroponte has been up to.

CNN.com – MIT developing $100 laptops for children – Apr 4, 2005
In design and function, Negroponte wants the $100 laptop to “be so close to the current laptops as to be nearly indistinguishable,” but acknowledges that the machine will have a relatively slow processor and modest storage capacity paired with barebones software.

The biggest challenge, he says, is designing a display that doesn’t put the price out of reach or drain the battery too quickly.

Details are still being worked out, but here’s the MIT team’s current recipe: Put the laptop on a software diet; use the freely distributed Linux operating system; design a battery capable of being recharged with a hand crank; and use newly developed “electronic ink” or a novel rear-projected image display with a 12-inch screen.

Then, give it Wi-Fi access, and add USB ports to hook up peripheral devices.

Interesting if some of these technologies (a good-looking low-power screen would be a real breakthrough) make it back into the for-profit segments.