Ten years ago, at the changing over of centuries, the civilized world was whipped into a complete panic by the looming fear of a massive, widespread computer failure. The so-called Y2K crisis was caused by the realization that when the years changed over, computers programs using only two digits to represent the year would go all the way back to 00 (representing 1900).
This resulted in a fear that major computer systems, like those found in banks, military installations and even airliners, would go haywire and cause a severe global incident. Fortunately, this turned out to be very, very wrong. All the problems were either fixed beforehand or simply didn't cause any of the major anticipated issues.
Computer shutdowns or not, I bet you remember it.
Think about all the fear this simple date shift caused. People thought the money they had tied up in banks would go up in smoke. Some thought that airplanes would start falling out of the sky, or that nuclear missiles would go off without warning and plunge the world into darkness.
Personally, I don't recall being all that concerned about whether my computer would work on January 1st, 2000, or if the world would be a totally changed place the next day. In fact, I think I was more worried about beating the next gym leader in Pokemon Red on my Gameboy Pocket. At the time, that accomplishment actually seemed a little more earth-shattering than a potential technological apocalypse. Of course, I still remember all the talk, the hype and the hysteria.
With a decade's worth of new problems behind us now, it's still pretty curious to me that we worry about the things least likely to happen, and yet things like the buildup of greenhouse gases still manage to go relatively unchecked. If we spent half as much time anticipating problems like renewable energy, climate shift, terrorism or serious financial crises, the first ten years of this century may have been a bit more productive and prosperous. Instead, we spent the last moments of the 20th century worrying that humanity would be brought down by a couple missing digits.
So here's a proposal, the next time we're worried about the world ending on New Years, say...in 2012, let's remind ourselves that these giant perceived problems usually turn out to be nothing at all, and that our energies would be better spent solving problems that actually exist.
What do you remember most about the Y2K bug?
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Comments (35)
i was like 7, so i remember people talking about it but not really what they were referring to.
hahahahaha, oh pokemon<3
I was 13 & the internet was my life so I was panicked. After the ball dropped, I was online & everyone was like "MY COMPUTER IS ALIVE!!! YAY!!!".
I agree, the 2012 thing is ridiculous...so much so the Mayans came out & said that was bullshit. The world is not ending, but a major event or something will happen.
HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!
I was 10. I thought that maybe the world grew up since then, but apparently between Balloon Boys and misunderstood Mayan predictions, we're basically at the same level of hysteria and paranoia. Maybe even a bit worse.
I believe I was thirteen and I believe I continued on my computer. I didn't seem affected by what rumour was going on around that time but I sure I wish I could back to those days.
I'm sure you all seen the Family Guy episode.
Giant Chicken: Y2K
Peter: Are you trying to sell me sex jelly? Ha, it went something like that.
lawl 10 years ago everyone was freaking out about Y2K. december 21, 2012, everyone will be freaking out about the obliteration of mankind. 2013 (and 2039--the years keep changing??), people will be worried about the asteroid that's headed for earth.
i feel like we need terror/fear to sustain a purpose in humanity. =_=
I love all these apocalyptic prophesies! Spices things up. Keep 'em comin', nutcases!
I have a t-shirt commemorating the Y2K bug that I still wear.
I was eleven and my family was the stereo-typical freak-out conservative Christian. We had six months worth of food saved up. My parents bought extra toilet paper and coffee to barter with when the currency failed. Any resistance on our part was met with "You can't spend you're life with your head in the sand. It's time to be prepared for the real world." Let's not forget the practiced escape routes in case the government declared martial law and started attacking random citizens.
So yeah...
At least the food didn't go to waste since one of my parents lost their job and we got to live off the food. So I guess one good thing came out of it amidst all the paranoia.
I remember a couple families filling up their bathtubs thinking we're going to lose water.
i was raelly young when it happened. about 11 i think. only thing i remember was the grocery stores being more crouded than usual and constantly hearing about the extreams people were going to on the news. i remember it saying stuff about people buying bomb shelters or something like that.
@snarkius@xanga - I knew people like that at my church! One family had saved up food in a semi-truck trailer! They ate that junk for a looooong time!
I was like 10 and was a skeptic who kept telling everyone to relax, while my dad was flipping a shit over it. He made me watch a video of this really funny dramatic reenactment on it and everything. Good shit.
I was 10 at the time. All I remember was having an arguement with my friend who lives down the street who wanted to have my gameboy.
"No!
Come on, when 2000 hits, we're all going to die anyways!
I don't care, I just got this game!"
The mind of children, neh?
I certainly remember the Y2K bug, as I was on a Task Force, here in the UK, working on various bits of comms kit trying to prevent it from falling over.
Midnight came and went and the worse thing that had happened was a telephone system was unplugged by a cleaner after a excessively messy Christmas Party, and no one noticed until the New Year return the following Monday.
We had been on this task Force for about a year, and the more work we did do, the more the thought that "What ARE We doing" drifted into mind. But hay - they were paying good money to "protect" these systems.
I sometimes think that Mankind would get bored if it didn't have some perceived threat to deal with - roll on Christmas 2012
I remember the Y2K thing, I was worry the world would end in the year 2000 at midnight.
I was about 4, so I don't remember much... Asking why everyone was worried about some weird combination of letters and numbers, I think. I was more concerned with the new toy horse my mom had gotten me :P
Xanga has the Y2K bug. One of the photos I uploaded a week ago is dated as January 1st, 1900 in my photoblog. Has this happened to anyone else?
Wow, lot of youngins! I was 16 and I was at a party. The news showed New Years celebrations from Australia since their time zone is about 16 hours ahead of us. My friend's dad said..."Australia is still floating...we should be ok!" An hour later it was midnight, the ball dropped and nothing out of the ordinary happened. People got hyped up over absolutely nothing.
It's the same with the 2012 BS. I don't believe that will happen. If it does, the believers won't be around to say "I told you so."
I was 9 when we all sat on our couches in fear that the world was going to end. I remember not understanding why the world would end just because the clocks on computers would go to 1990 instead of 2000. I remember some story about hoe they flew one of the planes with the clock set to 2000 and were so relieved that nothing happened. I just all sounded so stupid to me.
@snarkius@xanga - This is what my house sounds like now. My dad is convinced the world is going to end. When the currency fails, he plans on using gold instead of coffee though.
That year we were all celebrating in my grandma's basement and my dad snuck into the other room and pulled all the fuses just as we were all shouting "happy new year!" We all screeched as the entire house plunged into utter darkness. Even in that half moment of confusion, however, none of us seriously believed the world was coming to an end. I didn't go for any of the hype. My grandparents, on the other hand, had pretty much their entire basement stock piled with food. We're probably still consuming some of those canned contents at family gatherings.
Also, some people commenting that they were only 3 or 4 years old at Y2K makes me feel super old. Has it really been 10 years?
The first and the last problems you mentioned are worthy adversaries that we should have put some focus to. But global warming doesn't hold up to water. Neither does terrorism. And doesn't terrorism fit in with your statement "that we worry about things least likely to happen." What are the odds you'll be killed by something labeled a terrorist attack? Far less likely then just about any other way to die. We've clearly wasted much of the last decade focusing on it to begin with. Maybe drunk driving would have been a wiser focus, where there's the equivelent of 30 9/11's every year when you count all the deaths from drunk driving. But that might put a crink in beer companies profits, amongst making people more likely to be sober and think about life a little more, like the very things you've mentioned.
I like where your thoughts started. And it's very appropriate considering that the 2012 hype you mentioned, is building by the month.
umm...i thought my phone was struck by the new year last night since it wouldn't send texts. i only half belived it though because my imagination runs wild, and in the back of my mind (the rational section) i knew it was because everyone else in the world was texting right at that moment :p
I think the people calling it hype don't get that they didn't just pull it out of their ass.. it was a design flaw that might well have caused cataclysmic failures in a number of systems.
I know we all write it of as hype because nothing crashed [because most places figured out what to do to avoid it].. but suppose it had.. then there would've been all sorts of people out partying, shit out of luck in a situation off mass hysteria.. why.. because they didn't bother to do anything to prepare.
Now, at the time I was like.. what..15 or so.. and my family had food and water and such stored away, not that we rushed out to get it all at once, but stuff we bought overtime. I still keep a stocked room. This is not paranoia. It's there in case unspeakable shit does happen.. and the reality that people often take for granted is that shit can happen at ANY time.
Whether it does or doesn't nobody who did stock up regrets doing so.. because none of the canned food or water or emergency supplies they bought have expired. In that case they just ended up extra food and such. Had anything have happened at or near then, though, most people would've been SOL.
I was just always taught it's better to be safe than sorry, in uncertain circumstances. I just think too many people lose their lives and livelihoods for being totally careless.. on the quite wrong assumption that any tomorrow is invariably guaranteed to them.