It was the year 1999, and I don’t understand much of anything that’s been going abuzz, but what I understand as a five-year-old is that the turn of the century could mean the end of the world as we know it.
It’s all over the news.
And I’ve seen glimpses of the panic over the impending Year 2000 doom (which some called the millennium bug) while watching the news on our CRT TV.
Then January 1, 2000 came and all I could remember that year was that I’m ready for grade school.
I never understood what fearmongering really is. But as somebody starting out at five, it’s really frightful to think that the world would end when I am just about to start with life.
I never really understood what happened at the turn of the century until I watched “Time Bomb Y2K.”
Watch the trailer here:
And in the documentary, you can really feel the fear (even when we might find it absurd now). You will get the idea that the danger was real, although some groups have taken it to the extreme, adding to the already mounting hysteria.
It reminded me that we’ve depended so much on how reliable our technology is until it doesn’t, like when the Ukraine grid was hacked in 2015 and the Texas power infrastructure failure in 2021.
While reading more about the millennium bug, a 2020 The Guardian article much sums up how we should see it:
Y2K should be seen as a warning of the danger that arises when millions of independent systems might fail because of a single event. But this lesson has not been learned. Today, millions of systems rely on the GPS signal to provide the accurate timing, positioning and navigation on which our communications, defence, financial systems and food supplies depend. Yet the GPS signal is easy to jam and could be disabled for days or weeks by a major solar storm. Today, so many computer systems use the same software that a single cyberattack could spread rapidly and cause chaos. And 20 years ago, we did not have automated just-in-time supply chains with their much greater vulnerability.
Twenty years ago we showed that committed international action could overcome a critical threat. We shall need that commitment again.
From The millennium bug was real – and 20 years later we face the same threats by Martyn Thomas
jessa 