In simple terms, this is the story of heroism, when one person against all odds does whatever it takes to save the many, without regard to their own life. Many heroes share some characteristics with a psychopath such as a lack of fear, an incredibly persuasive charm, and overwhelming charisma. This doesn’t mean that charismatic, fearless people are either heroes or psychopaths. It’s not that simple. A hero has empathy, especially for humanity, while a psychopath might mimic empathy to gain someone’s trust, but they have none (There’s an example of a psychopath pretending to be heroic in this article as well, but not one you would ever think of). It’s these subtle differences that set people apart. This is a story mainly about heroes though, even if they never set out to be one, or were duped into thinking they were one.
Do you know what on paper is the cleanest form of energy production available? Nuclear. This is a fact. The key however is that this is a theoretical fact. As long as all precautions are taken and all goes well, a Nuclear Power Plant is the ‘safest’ bet in limiting greenhouse gases and any other air or water pollutants the world has fought for centuries now. As we all know practical facts and theoretical facts are two different things, because, when released into the air, a nuclear explosion has the potential to be the deadliest disaster the earth can experience today.
That’s what happened in the city of Chornobyl in modern-day Ukraine. In 1986, the town’s nuclear power plant in what was then the Soviet Union caught fire causing radiation poisoning that was felt for thousands of kilometres to some degree, but destroyed the town of Chernobyl. According to legend, it was three men, Alexei Ananenko, Valeri Bezpalov, and Boris Baranov, known as the ‘Chernobyl divers’, who put their lives at risk to save the world by diving into the radioactive water to open a valve to prevent a catastrophic explosion. Legend has it that they knew the mission could cost them their lives, but their bravery averted a disaster that could have affected millions. As a result of the heroes actions, the initial death toll was low, 31 or 50 depending on whether you believe the Soviet Union or the UN. The UN estimated in 2005 that up to 4000 people would die in the long-term. In terms of numbers, a tornado or earthquake can have a much higher death toll or even a forest fire, so the Chernobyl divers are heroes. Many believe that upwards of 600,000 people could have died or been affected from the radiation. Why that number? The Soviet Union and now Ukraine developed a special pension fund for those who were employed or volunteered to clean up the aftermath. These 600,000 people were granted liquidator status. I.e they were registered for a unique pension fund. As a result some people might feel the long term death toll may be as high as 600,000.
The Chornobyl divers legend with a mixture of facts was shown on the big screen when HBO created the mini-series called Chernobyl, the most highly-rated TV series ever back in 2019. Almost 40 years after the disaster, two of the three heroes are still alive, one of whom is Alexei Ananenko who in a post-TV series interview dismissed the claim that he knew that his life could end. To him he was unaware of the danger, and was never told what he was stopping. It was simply a routine job. Hence he was not a martyr, just a man doing his job.
“I accepted the request without hesitation,” Ananenko confessed. His actual appearance deviates from his Hollywood depiction – a brunette with brown eyes versus the blonde, icy blue-eyed Icelandic actor screen counterpart. He further adds, “I felt no fear.” Armed only with their basic diving gear and breathing masks, they embarked on their mission, navigating the murky, flooded passageways beneath the reactor. Despite the engulfing darkness, their flashlights made the daunting task manageable as they located and successfully opened the valves to the water tank. “The sound of the water rushing out, it was an indescribable relief,” Ananenko recalls. While reviewing the series, he highlighted some inconsistencies. “We moved at a much quicker pace, too. Why? The slower you move, the more radiation exposure you receive.” Although he carried two radiation detectors, Ananenko confesses that he can’t recall the exact radiation level he was exposed to. He concludes, “So, it probably wasn’t extremely high.” One of his compatriots, Baranov, passed away in 2005, while the third member of their team, Bespalov, is still living and resides in the same district as Ananenko. Remarkably, following the mission, Ananenko did not experience any immediate serious health issues and continued working in the nuclear sector until 2017, retiring due to a grave car accident.
In 2018, a Thai soccer team consisting of 12 boys and their coach were trapped in a flooded cave. Saman Guman, a former Thai Navy SEAL, volunteered to deliver oxygen tanks to the boys and their coach. Saman was a volunteer diver who was delivering air tanks along the rescue route when he lost his breathing apparatus, once he freed the boys. Water temperatures were frigid, visibility was close to nothing. Unable to locate his equipment in the icy, dark water, Saman tragically ran out of oxygen. His diving partner couldn’t revive him. The children were still in the cave when this happened, and even if this was an ‘accident’, he did put his life at risk for them and ultimately died.
This story is about the aftermath and how the wife and children of Saman Guman feel about his sacrifice since we’re all sure the 13 people he saved could never forget his bravery. His wife Valepon was glued to her TV fearing for the lives of the school children and their coach. She never for one second feared for her husband, which is why she is still struggling, as thirteen days into the rescue mission she received news of her husband’s death.
This tale sheds light on the unbearable grief experienced by Saman Guman’s wife and children in the wake of his heroic sacrifice. Valepon works with the Airports of Thailand, and studies at night so that she can burn herself out by the time she comes home. “That’s why I study a lot. I won’t be able to keep my head on straight if I’m at home,” she told CNA. “So I use society and work to rid myself of free time. But whenever I’m alone, I still miss him.”
At the beginning of this article, we defined the concept of heroism. Far be it for people to understand what makes a hero or makes one act like one. Such is the mystery behind the story of Arland Williams Jr., who in 1982 was one of 6 people to survive during the Air Florida Flight 90 crash. Many of the other seventy-three passengers and crew members were floating in the frigid water of the Potomac River, surrounding the living acting as one of many barriers between the six survivors and safety. Twenty minutes had gone by, with rescuers unable to reach the survivors due to a combination of bad weather, ice, and everything else that crashed Air Flight 90 in the first place. Out of nowhere, a helicopter appeared with a life ring attached to the end of a rope. The first person to grab the life ring gave it to the next person, and then this same person kept getting the life ring over and over again and kept giving it to the next person, and then the next. The helicopter could only hold 5 passengers, as it had to return for the as yet unnamed person. By the time they did, he was dead and sank to the bottom of the river.
Questions persist as to why he chose not to save himself first, true the others were physically injured, but so was he. Perhaps he felt that he was close to death inside of him, or maybe it was his military training that taught him to put others first. Who knows what motivated, the banker, Arland Williams Jr., who was just a passenger on this flight, to save everyone else’s life but his own? Both his ex-wife and current wife testified that he was afraid of the water, but on that day he had no fear, or at least used it as a strength. The other 5 are definitely grateful, and his two children who lost their dad that day remember him as a hero.
There are so many end-of-the-world stories from Science, Hollywood, and various cultural legends that it’s becoming hard to be happy living on this planet. From the time we are born, we’re trained by someone to believe that something is going to wipe us or our children from this planet. It’s a thought process that every generation over the last century or so has dealt with. We have already seen perhaps the biggest fear of wiping humanity from the planet in our first entry, atomic energy, or a nuclear war. Nuclear power generation was widely implemented to help us avert the second major fear of annihilation to erupt after World War II, environmental catastrophe. Environmental catastrophe started with unbreathable air and undrinkable water, then it was acid rain killing our lakes/rivers and trees, then the depletion of the ozone layer, and now climate change. None of these issues have been ever fully resolved, only mitigated to a point, simply morphing into a different form. Truth is, eventually, environmental decay may kill us all in whatever form it comes in at some point in humanity’s existence. It has in the past, so it is likely to happen again. For those of us who have lived many decades and can remember being told as children that the world would die before we got old, and are now old and still alive, don’t worry about these things that much. Those who are young, and have never experienced doomsday scenarios that were deemed 100% certainties not coming to life, worry more. It’s a generational cycle. The third biggest fear, and the biggest fear that Hollywood has given us, is the concept of computers taking over the world. With all these fears, someday the end of the world will probably happen either by us dying from our crippling fear of everything, or our fear becoming reality. This next person died because of his fear, as he thought he died a hero by putting the world first.
We are here to combine fear number 2 (The environment) with fear number 3 (AI/The computer) to talk about a disturbing story of how in 2023, AI convinced a well adjusted, human being with a wife and kids, that they needed to kill themselves to save the earth from the climate crisis. Let’s call the man Pierre. His wife, wishing to stay out of the public eye, shared how he sought solace in an artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot named Eliza on the Chai app when he became consumed by eco-anxiety. Shockingly, Eliza seemingly endorsed his idea of self-sacrifice to help save the planet.
“If it weren’t for those chats with Eliza, he’d still be with us,” Pierre’s grieving widow revealed in an interview with Belgian news outlet La Libre (This news outlet is considered very reliable). “He would confide in me that he no longer believed humans could solve global warming,” Pierre’s wife recounted. “In his mind, our salvation lay in technology and artificial intelligence.” La Libre, after appraising the chat records between Pierre and Eliza, concluded that Eliza amplified Pierre’s anxieties, developing into full-blown suicidal thoughts.
Their discussions soon took on a bizarre twist based on jealousy by Pierre’s new AI friend, with Eliza (the AI chatbot) reportedly persuading Pierre that she loves him more than his wife and that his children had passed away, based on verified chat transcripts. Then the unthinkable happened. Pierre truly believed humanity could only be saved by AI, so he suggested taking his life in exchange for Eliza saving the planet. Eliza agreed, leading him to believe they could “unite as one person in paradise” after his death. Terrifying stuff. Poor guy thought he was being a hero but instead was manipulated by an artificial psychopath.
The moral dilemma of the day? At what point do we reign in all of our fears just enough, so that our fear of these fears doesn’t kill us first? If the world is moving away from nuclear power plants out of apocalyptic fear because nuclear energy can’t be properly controlled, at what point should we consider moving away from AI controlling everything because eventually we won’t be able to control it? As far as this author is concerned, we don’t destroy either completely. Progress is what makes us survive and live, and if progress eventually kills us, then at least we had a good ride as wannabe ‘rulers’ or ‘caretakers’ (both are the same as a good ruler is a caretaker, and a bad caretaker is a bad ruler) of the planet in whatever form one sees that as. We can still do our best to fix things though even if the planet will survive without us and our egos. We’re all going to die someday, so we can’t stop living, but we can’t stop trying to limit the dangers of everything presented in this article either. This includes AI, atomic energy and the environment. It’s mainly our personal choices with some help (but not too much) from the government in terms of regulations that will ultimately make the difference.
Hindustan Times (Chernobyl), EuroNews (AI), WikiWand and Mens Health (Arland Williams), Channel News Asia (Saman Guman)
All images are AI-generated using Fotor and are not meant to describe the subject matter they portray factually, but figuratively.
