New York, NY, September 26, 2018 – To celebrate that today is not the 35th anniversary of World War III, Stanislav Petrov, the man who helped avert an all-out nuclear exchange between Russia and the U.S. on September 26 1983 was honored in New York with the $50,000 Future of Life Award at a ceremony at the Museum of Mathematics in New York.

Former United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon said: “It is hard to imagine anything more devastating for humanity than all-out nuclear war between Russia and the United States. Yet this might have occurred by accident on September 26 1983, were it not for the wise decisions of Stanislav Yevgrafovich Petrov. For this, he deserves humanity’s profound gratitude. Let us resolve to work together to realize a world free from fear of nuclear weapons, remembering the courageous judgement of Stanislav Petrov.”

Although the U.N. General Assembly, just blocks away, heard politicians highlight the nuclear threat from North Korea’s small nuclear arsenal, none mentioned the greater threat from the many thousands of nuclear weapons in the United States and Russian arsenals that have nearly been unleashed by mistake dozens of times in the past in a seemingly never-ending series of mishaps and misunderstandings.

One of the closest calls occurred thirty-five years ago, on September 26, 1983, when Stanislav Petrov chose to ignore the Soviet early-warning detection system that had erroneously indicated five incoming American nuclear missiles. With his decision to ignore algorithms and instead follow his gut instinct, Petrov helped prevent an all-out US-Russian nuclear war, as detailed in the documentary film “The Man Who Saved the World”, which will be released digitally next week. Since Petrov passed away last year, the award was collected by his daughter Elena. Meanwhile, Petrov’s son Dmitry missed his flight to New York because the U.S. embassy delayed his visa. “That a guy can’t get a visa to visit the city his dad saved from nuclear annihilation is emblematic of how frosty US-Russian relations have gotten, which increases the risk of accidental nuclear war”, said MIT Professor Max Tegmark when presenting the award. Arguably the only recent reduction in the risk of accidental nuclear war came when Donald Trump held a summit with Vladimir Putin in Helsinki earlier this year, which was, ironically, met with widespread criticism.

In Russia, soldiers often didn’t discuss their wartime actions out of fear that it might displease their government, and so, Elena only first heard about her father’s heroic actions in 1998 – 15 years after the event occurred. And even then, Elena and her brother only learned of what her father had done when a German journalist reached out to the family for an article he was working on. It’s unclear if Petrov’s wife, who died in 1997, ever knew of her husband’s heroism. Until his death, Petrov maintained a humble outlook on the event that made him famous. “I was just doing my job,” he’d say.

But most would agree that he went above and beyond his job duties that September day in 1983. The alert of five incoming nuclear missiles came at a time of high tension between the superpowers, due in part to the U.S. military buildup in the early 1980s and President Ronald Reagan’s anti-Soviet rhetoric. Earlier in the month the Soviet Union shot down a Korean Airlines passenger plane that strayed into its airspace, killing almost 300 people, and Petrov had to consider this context when he received the missile notifications. He had only minutes to decide whether or not the satellite data were a false alarm. Since the satellite was found to be operating properly, following procedures would have led him to report an incoming attack. Going partly on gut instinct and believing the United States was unlikely to fire only five missiles, he told his commanders that it was a false alarm before he knew that to be true. Later investigations revealed that reflections of the Sun off of cloud tops had fooled the satellite into thinking it was detecting missile launches.

Last years Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Beatrice Fihn, who helped establish the recent United Nations treaty banning nuclear weapons, said,“Stanislav Petrov was faced with a choice that no person should have to make, and at that moment he chose the human race — to save all of us. No one person and no one country should have that type of control over all our lives, and all future lives to come. 35 years from that day when Stanislav Petrov chose us over nuclear weapons, nine states still hold the world hostage with 15,000 nuclear weapons. We cannot continue relying on luck and heroes to safeguard humanity. The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons provides an opportunity for all of us and our leaders to choose the human race over nuclear weapons by banning them and eliminating them once and for all. The choice is the end of us or the end of nuclear weapons. We honor Stanislav Petrov by choosing the latter.”

University College London Mathematics Professor  Hannah Fry, author of  the new book “Hello World: Being Human in the Age of Algorithms”, participated in the ceremony and pointed out that as ever more human decisions get replaced by automated algorithms, it is sometimes crucial to keep a human in the loop – as in Petrov’s case.

The Future of Life Award seeks to recognize and reward those who take exceptional measures to safeguard the collective future of humanity. It is given by the Future of Life Institute (FLI), a non-profit also known for supporting AI safety research with Elon Musk and others. “Although most people never learn about Petrov in school, they might not have been alive were it not for him”, said FLI co-founder Anthony Aguirre. Last year’s award was given to the Vasili Arkhipov, who singlehandedly prevented a nuclear attack on the US during the Cuban Missile Crisis. FLI is currently accepting nominations for next year’s award.

About Future of Life Institute

The Future of Life Institute (FLI) is a scientific think tank that looks at all the ways in which today is better than the stone age, and technology is likely to keep improving at an accelerating pace. FLI is a  charity and outreach organization working to ensure that tomorrow’s most powerful technologies are beneficial for humanity. With less powerful technologies such as fire, the world learned to minimize risks largely by learning from mistakes. With more powerful technologies such as nuclear weapons, synthetic biology and future strong artificial intelligence, planning ahead is a better strategy than learning from mistakes, so FLI supports research and other efforts aimed at avoiding problems in the first place.

FLI is currently focusing on keeping artificial intelligence beneficial and we are also exploring ways of reducing risks from nuclear weapons and biotechnology. FLI is based in the Boston area and welcomes the participation of scientists, students, philanthropists, and others nearby and around the world.

FLI was founded by Max Tegmark, Jaan Tallinn, and has hosted on its scientific advisory board the late Stephen Hawking, Alan Alda, Morgan Freeman, and Elon Musk.

About Studio Mao

Studio Mao is a premiere global content management company founded in 2006 with a strong focus on motion picture production, development and distribution. The company produces feature films, including Guy Nattiv’s Oscar nominated (Best Live Action Short) film SKIN, the critically-acclaimed award-winning film Filth by the author of Trainspotting Irvine Welsh in which James McAvoy won Best Actor awards at the Scottish BAFTA’s, British Independent Film Awards, Empire Awards and London Critics Circle Film Awards. The film’s director Jon S. Baird also won the London Critics Circle Breakthrough British Filmmaker award and the film was nominated on multiple occasions for Best Feature Film. Filth was the highest grossing independent film in England in 2013 and was produced with Maven Pictures and Steel Mill Pictures. Studio Mao also collaborated with Maven Pictures on the Netflix acquired The Kindergarten Teacher (Maggie Gyllenhaal) that won Best Director at the Sundance Film Festival,  Wilding (Bel Powley, Liv Tyler), American Honey (Shia La Beouf, Riley Keoug, Sasha Lane), Freak Show (Alex Lawther, AnnaSophia Robb, Abigail Breslin, Laverne Cox, Bette Midler), Girl Most Likely (Kristen Wiig, Darren Criss), Ten Thousand Saints (Ethan Hawke, Hailee Steinfeld, Asa Butterfield). Studio Mao is responsible for arranging distribution of the docudrama The Man Who Saved the World (Stanislav Petrov, Kevin Costner, Sergey Shnyryov, Nataliya Vdovina) in Russia/CIS on theatrical and digital platforms.

Films have premiered at major festivals including the Cannes Film Festival, the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), Berlinale in Berlin, and the Sundance Film festival. Films have been sold at festival to major distributors for worldwide theatrical release.

The Studio Mao brand is synonymous with high quality, original and bold content that is distributed to markets around the world. The company is actively involved in developing its proprietary HD content management and video streaming platform “STP” designed to securely deliver content worldwide and on multiple platforms. Subscribers will be able to view Studio Mao movie releases and content utilizing STP technology that will further permit an interactive experience with dynamic and live HD feeds.

The company’s open-source mantra is “Leave no creative stone unturned”.

For more information about Studio Mao, please visit www.studiomao.com

Contact:

Steve Kent
asst@studiomao.com
+1 (212) 961-6882

Boston, MA., September 18, 2017 – By Ariel Conn, Future of Life Institute, Stanislav Petrov

September 23, 1983: Soviet Union Detects Incoming Missiles

A Soviet early warning satellite showed that the United States had launched five land-based missiles at the Soviet Union. The alert came at a time of high tension between the two countries, due in part to the U.S. military buildup in the early 1980s and President Ronald Reagan’s anti-Soviet rhetoric. In addition, earlier in the month the Soviet Union shot down a Korean Airlines passenger plane that strayed into its airspace, killing almost 300 people. Stanislav Petrov, the Soviet officer on duty, had only minutes to decide whether or not the satellite data were a false alarm. Since the satellite was found to be operating properly, following procedures would have led him to report an incoming attack. Going partly on gut instinct and believing the United States was unlikely to fire only five missiles, he told his commanders that it was a false alarm before he knew that to be true. Later investigations revealed that reflection of the sun on the tops of clouds had fooled the satellite into thinking it was detecting missile launches (Accidental Nuclear War: a Timeline of Close Calls).

Petrov is widely credited for having saved millions if not billions of people with his decision to ignore satellite reports, preventing accidental escalation into what could have become a full-scale nuclear war. This event was turned into the movie “The Man Who Saved the World,” and Petrov was honored at the United Nations and given the World Citizen Award.

All of us at FLI were saddened to learn that Stanislav Petrov passed away this past May. News of his death was announced this weekend. Petrov was to be honored during the release of a new documentary, also called The Man Who Saved the World, in February of 2018. Stephen Mao, who is an executive producer of this documentary, told FLI that though they had originally planned to honor Petrov in person at February’s Russian theatrical premier, “this will now be an event where we will eulogize and remember Stanislav for his contribution to the world.”

Jakob Staberg, the movie’s producer, said:

“Stanislav saved the world but lost everything and was left alone. Taking part in our film, The Man Who Saved the World, his name and story came out to the whole world. Hopefully the actions of Stanislav will inspire other people to take a stand for good and not to forget that the nuclear threat is still very real. I will remember Stanislav’s own humble words about his actions: ‘I just was at the right place at the right time’. Yes, you were Stanislav. And even though you probably would argue that I am wrong, I am happy it was YOU who was there in that moment. Not many people would have the courage to do what you did. Thank you.”

You can read more about Petrov’s life and heroic actions in the New York Times obituary.

The original of this article by Ariel Conn from The Future of Life Institute can be found here:

https://futureoflife.org/2017/09/18/stanislav-petrov-man-saved-world-died/

The Future of Life Institute

The Future of Life Institute (FLI) is a volunteer-run research and outreach organization in the Boston area that works to mitigate existential risks facing humanity, particularly existential risk from advanced artificial intelligence(AI). Its founders include MIT cosmologist Max Tegmark, Skype co-founder Jaan Tallinn, and its board of advisors includes cosmologist Stephen Hawking and entrepreneur Elon Musk.

The FLI mission is to catalyze and support research and initiatives for safeguarding life and developing optimistic visions of the future, including positive ways for humanity to steer its own course considering new technologies and challenges.  FLI is particularly focused on the potential risks to humanity from the development of human-level artificial intelligence.

The institute’s advisory board includes computer scientist Stuart J. Russell, biologist George Church, cosmologists Stephen Hawking and Saul Perlmutter, theoretical physicist Frank Wilczek, entrepreneur Elon Musk, and actors and science communicators Alan Alda and Morgan Freeman.  FLI operates grassroots-style to recruit volunteers and younger scholars from the local community in the Boston area.

Future of Life Institute website: https://futureoflife.org/

Contacts at Future of Life Institute:

• Max Tegmark: max@futureoflife.org
• Meia Chita-Tegmark: meia@futureoflife.org
• Jaan Tallinn: jaan@futureoflife.org
• Anthony Aguirre: anthony@futureoflife.org
• Viktoriya Krakovna: vika@futureoflife.org

About Studio Mao

Studio Mao is a premiere global content management company founded in 2006 with a strong focus on motion picture production, development and distribution. The company produces feature films, including the critically-acclaimed award-winning film Filth by the author of Trainspotting Irvine Welsh in which James McAvoy won Best Actor awards at the Scottish BAFTA’s, British Independent Film Awards, Empire Awards and London Critics Circle Film Awards. The film’s director Jon S. Baird also won the London Critics Circle Breakthrough British Filmmaker award and the film was nominated on multiple occasions for Best Feature Film. Filth was the highest grossing independent film in England in 2013 and was produced with Maven Pictures and Steel Mill Pictures. Studio Mao also collaborated with Maven Pictures on Wilding (Bel Powley, Liv Tyler), American Honey (Shia La Beouf, Riley Keoug, Sasha Lane), Freak Show (Alex Lawther, AnnaSophia Robb, Abigail Breslin, Laverne Cox, Bette Midler), Girl Most Likely (Kristen Wiig, Darren Criss), Ten Thousand Saints (Ethan Hawke, Hailee Steinfeld, Asa Butterfield). Studio Mao is responsible for arranging distribution of the docudrama The Man Who Saved the World (Stanislav Petrov, Kevin Costner, Sergey Shnyryov, Nataliya Vdovina) in Russia/CIS on theatrical and digital platforms.

Films have premiered at major festivals including the Cannes Film Festival, the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), and the Sundance Film festival. Films have been sold at festival to major distributors for worldwide theatrical release.

The Studio Mao brand is synonymous with high quality, original and bold content that is distributed to markets around the world. The company is actively involved in developing its proprietary HD content management and video streaming platform “STP” designed to securely deliver content worldwide and on multiple platforms. Subscribers will be able to view Studio Mao movie releases and content utilizing STP technology that will further permit an interactive experience with dynamic and live HD feeds.

The company’s open source mantra is “Leave no creative stone unturned”.

For more information about Studio Mao, please visit www.studiomao.com

Contact:

Steve Kent
asst@studiomao.com
(212) 961-6882