If you were around ya gotta check out Time Bomb Y2K streaming tomorrow on HBO Max.

This documentary explores the millennium bug, also known as the Y2K problem.

In the 1960s, computer memory and mass storage were scarce and expensive. Early core memory cost one dollar per bit. We’re still in the classic computer filled whole rooms era. The moon landing was in 1969. (At this moment, the processing power in your phone exceeds that which NASA harnessed to effectively launch astronauts to the moon. I’m not sure how true it is, but that’s the cheesy thing to say.)

Therefore computers were hard coded with 19 and 2 blank digitals to determine the year in order to save space, time, and money. Cheques used to do the same thing…the dates already had 19 printed on em followed by a short blank for the remaining two digits.

Now, when nerds in the 1960s or 1970s would correctly point out the year 2000 was relatively close they were ignored or shushed or dismissed.

This is the quintessential crisis reaction; the human template. There are always people ignored along doom’s path. They might not have had the right personality or authoritative platform, but we handle most predicaments this way.

We either reject the prophets or, worse yet, we pay the wrong people attention.Due to their uncanny ability to elevate ordinary people’s sense of significance, dilettantes will always be in demand. Like your feelings matter. You can have whatever feelings you want about the millennium bug…it’s still an issue that needs to be addressed.

Worse as the documentary reveals…the basic belief was today the two digits code works just fine. The Year 2000 was somebody else’s problem. Also traditional human behaviour. Rather than address the problem we pointed the (middle?) finger.

Now if you’re still writing a cheque in 2000 you can cross out the 19 and write 2000. It’s not clean but it’s functional and it works. No biggie.

The problem was all the lines of code that would in 1999 suddenly flip over to 1900 on January 1st 2000. We were told that the erroneous 1900 date had the potential to bring down worldwide infrastructures in all computer reliant industries. Airplanes would plummet from the heavens. Electricity would fail.

In short we should expect the LA Riots. That’s weird marketing. It created an unnecessary panic.

I still don’t understand why the public was informed. Having lived through Y2K, this recent pandemic…Deep Impact and Armageddon…telling the public is frequently a terrible idea.

Transparency doesn’t create comfort. I had no way to fix/address the Y2K bug. Okay then I’ma take a nap.

The pandemic is the same way. Fix it. Lemme know. I have no experience in medicine and no practical scientific knowledge. I’ll watch Simpsons reruns till you’ve worked everything out.

In Deep Impact and Armageddon a comet or an asteroid is expected to smash the Earth. And? I’ve no degree in astronomy, and I’ve never been to space. Watching a handful of NASA rocket launches doesn’t qualify me at all. This is not my area so there’s no value in informing me. Fix it. I’ll be reading a science fiction book about life on Mars over here.

It’s the late 1990s: there’s limited computer programmers. More? How many individuals could truly solve this problem with code? At the time, this was a small community.

And the majority lack access to the electrical grid, to nuclear power plants and other vital infrastructure that were bound to malfunction. Literally half the population could do nothing. If you didn’t have contact with infrastructure and you couldn’t code what value could you contribute?

Why was a mostly useless public informed that the millennium bug was a pressing issue?

Was airing this issue by putting it on the Six O’Clock News the best way to communicate the crisis? Then hope that smaller businesses would react appropriately? With what resources? I don’t think we handled this quandary well.

Among the strange reactions to the Y2K panic it naturally created an industry. Panic is profitable. The documentary covers this greed well. Massive expos selling all kinds of survival gear that was necessary because we were gonna be abruptly thrown into the Stone Age. Survival books on how to survive, speakers…seminars, all contributed to a doomsday cottage-industry. We observed all this during the pandemic.

None of this is scary. This is just the NBA all over again. There are only a handful of players or teams who deeply care. They hire well, scout smartly and focus on all the details that matter outside the actual basketball games.

The same principle applies to all governmental levels and industries. The ones who care are obligated to fix it. Send me an email when you’re done; I’m napping.