Millennium Bugged: Y2K and other Horror Stories

Millennium Bugged: Y2K and other Horror Stories
by Diane Alden

As the millennium approaches, the world is full of fearful rumors. There is talk of super-bugs, old diseases with new twists, planetary changes, lights in the sky, and scenarios that the sun is going to blow up soon, or at the very least fry 90 percent of the planet in a cosmic catastrophe. Late night radio talk shows abound spreading gloom and doom, and books and movies tell us about our frightening future.

People are gathering survival gear, food, radios, maintaining independent power sources, bottled water, guns and ammunition. Some are buying second homes in remote areas or considering a return to the fashionable fallout shelters of he 1950's. There are even people who hope all this mayhem will come about, because they see a need for change and think that total disaster is the only way anything is going to improve. All this preparation leaves the average person a bit fearful. I ask myself should I be afraid?

It is fine to be prepared for emergencies, prudent in fact. Putting away extra food, or having survival gear available is not a foolish idea given the chaotic nature of the environment the last 4.5 billion years. In addition, there are more than a few veterans of the "Great Depression" who have been survivalists for years--one of them is my dad. One entire end of his garage is designated as a survival center and it is stocked with canned goods and paper products. I am sure he has cornered the market on toilet paper in northeastern Minnesota--not that I fault him for this.

Mom and dad have been raising and preserving fruit and vegetables for years. In addition, they give away bushel baskets of produce to food banks or to anyone who will haul it off. They preserve meat and fish that dad catches, and drink water from a spring fed source on their property. Their place is where I want to be if I am not immediately destroyed by whatever disaster is down the road.

My folks have always been survivalists--even before it was fashionable. Oddly enough, books are one of their most important survival tools. Dad believes the moment TV, movies and radio are obliterated by some disaster, or when the Y2K problem puts an end to the national love affair with the computer, no one in our family will lack mental stimulation.

Recently, dad became aware of my most recent fear--the Y2K problem. This is the latest in a series of terrors which I have asked him to explain over the past 4 decades. One of the first major horrors we dealt with together happened when I was a teen. I wondered out loud if I would live to see my grandchildren. That was in 1962, at the height of the Cold War and during the Cuban Missile Crisis. He assured me I would.

What followed were nearly forty years of dad's reassurances about wars, disasters, and economic failure. Now here we go again--this time it is Y2K. But first he had to explain what Y2K is.

The year 2000 dilemma is about millions of lines of computer code dealing with dates. When the worlds computer programs were being developed in the early 60's the original programmers left only two digits, instead of four, to indicate the year, thereby saving valuable cyber space. The problem is that when unmodified computers and applications move from the digital code December 31, 1999 to January 1, 2000, they will read the last two zeroes in 2000 as 1900. Many of those who wrote the code are now dead and so there is no one to shed light on the logic of the code. If computers are not modified for the year 2,000, dad's birthday, December 13, 1919, will transform his age to a minus 19. That is fine with him except the glitch will play havoc with his social security, investments and may effect the TV remote control.

My question to dad was: should I worry and prepare for the Y2K disaster? Dad's advice - as always - is to be prepared for anything. Then he reminded me, the United States overcame a totally inadequate and partially destroyed military force at the start of WW II. But in the space of four years built the greatest military establishment in history. He admonishes that Americans thrive on crisis, and sooner or later the private sector will figure out how to solve the Y2K problem.

Dad also reminded me the last time mankind experienced a millennium turnover, civilization was at the end of the Dark Ages. During the first millennium, the fall of Rome led to massive disintegration, barbarism and intellectual stagnation. But after the year 1,000, with some unfortunate missteps, including Genghis Khan, Napoleon, Hitler and Stalin, there has been progress.

Over the last thousand years, he explained, some magnificent things have taken place. Things such as the Magna Carta, the Renaissance, and the Age of Enlightenment, which produced men like Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and James Madison.

In the last two hundred years, he added, man has seen the implementation of documents like the Declaration of Independence, and the U.S. Constitution with its extraordinary Bill of Rights. Man has expanded his life span, cured diseases like small pox and polio, created wonder drugs and walked on the moon.

In our own lifetimes, we have fought wars and seen major tragedies, watched as new diseases have taken their toll. But we have also been witness to men on the moon, cures for dozens of diseases and an explosion of knowledge and information.

According to dad, there will always be something to worry about. The millennium "bug" is the fact that mankind still hasn't learned that its progress is measured by overcoming crises', challenges, and dangers. He avows that one of the best things about us humans is that we are so incredibly adaptable.

Thanks dad.

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