An augmented reality tribute to Stanislov Petrov, the Soviet officer who literally saved the world from WW3.
Stanislov’s Dilemma will be a free, mobile-based, interactive instillation tethered via GPS coordinates to the United Nations building in New York City (the app will also allow users to “teleport” to the piece from anywhere).The application will be an interactive experience, placing users in Petrov’s shoes as the historical event unfolds.
STANISLAV PETROV: The Man Who Saved The World
Only a handful of Soviet military technicians knew at the time, but on September 26th, 1983, the world was nearly plunged into catastrophic nuclear war. It happened when a computer glitch caused the USSR’s state-of-the-art long-range missile detection system to identify five inbound nuclear missiles from the United States.
The commanding officer on shift, Stanislav Petrov, had a gut feeling there may be a computer bug. Despite having no technical evidence to back up his claim, he chose to report the data as a technical malfunction rather than an nuclear strike. Most military historians agree that had he followed protocol and reported the American missiles, it would have triggered nuclear war and annihilation for a large portion of humanity within a few hours.
He later described the moment of his decision: “There was a 50-50 chance the missiles were real… but I didn’t want to be the man who starts World War 3… if the missiles are real, let the sin be upon me.”
Augmented Reality Metaverse
The piece will be in the OVER augmented reality, metaverse platform. This is a blockchain-based virtual world which exists on top of our world, tethered via the GPS system. It is literally a digital virtual world sitting on top of the real world. This platform allows artists to overlay their creations on top of real world locations, created an integrated “augmented reality” artistic experience.
The platform sells “digital real estate” for content creators to control. Below is a map showing the actual location we own, it’s on a public sidewalk outside the primary United Nations building in NY.
Try it Out
There is already an early mockup of the AR piece, if you have the OVR APP installed you can visit HERE to get a better idea what the piece will look like.