The Y2K Scare | National Geographic

there still exists a general state of
either denial complacency or even apathy
about both the reality and the potential
effects of y2k by the end of the 90s
many of us were happy slaves to our
computers but our new masters had a
trick they had forgotten to tell us
about the basic idea on y2k was that for
convenience all these computer programs
when it came to due dates you only
needed two numbers why use four numbers
when you only need two and then they
recognized what date is a commuter gonna
think it is when we get to 2001 simple
date change for man one major screw-up
for computer at the stroke of midnight
January 1st 2000 elevators may stop heat
may damage credit cards and ATMs
may cease to function airplanes and
trains may come to a halt people were
terrified the world was going to end
this is not one of the summer movies
where you can close your eyes during the
scary parts with nearly everything in
our economy run by computers the
prospect of the digital meltdown is too
huge to contemplate
I was worried as the whole computer game
was new to us and I was a little
ignorant and we didn’t know what we
didn’t know and many thought what we
didn’t know was going to hurt us I’ve
got a revolver right now but I wanted
something something more that was a
dragon’s breath shell it can shoot a
4000 degree flame 300 feet it’s also the
most popular ammunition among y2k
customers at kgs guns and ammo
there was a beer everything’s in the
internet everything’s in computers and
we’re gonna lose it all and Jesus is
coming back with pre millennium tensions
growing the president appoints a crisis
management expert to prevent a y2k
meltdown eight to ten percent of the
population were fairly confident that
this was going to be an apocalypse the
president called me one night and said
here’s an office in an assistant and
don’t let the world stop