That Time a Bug Almost Ended Mankind

And what we should take from it

Daniel Gonçalves
Sep 1, 2018 · 2 min read
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It’s one of my first memories. I was five years old, family home as the clock struck midnight. My father called everyone there: nephews, nieces, brothers. We joined hands, united, and waiting for the end. It never came.

The TV had been on the whole time. “Welcome to the new millennium,” the anchorman said, “I guess my computer still works.” Only years later I got the joke.

I was browsing through Wikipedia. An article had caught my attention, it read The Year 2000 Problem. Below the title stood the acronym Y2K. I clicked on. It was about a computer bug, supposedly mankind’s worst nightmare.

Then I finally understood the confusing night of December 31st 1999. This is what happened:

Time Magazine: January 8 1999

Many computer programs controlling pivotal areas of society used two digits to represent years. This meant 1999 was written as 99. It mean 2000 and 1900 were the same. They said it was enough to cause critical failures.

Pacemakers would stop.

Planes would crash,

People would die.

Spoiler alert:

Nothing happened. Programs continued to work fine, and life went about normally, the world continuing a magnanimous existence.

The media and the government were to blame. CNN reported the phenomenon through most of 1999, and the Secretary of Defense reinforced it through alarming statements — despite scientists reassuring them it wouldn’t be a big deal.

An acute case of scaremongering.Fortunately, not everyone was like my father. Many remained septic. Yet the damage had been done. People had been scared senseless.

A harrowing conclusion:

Until Y2K, most doomsday scenarios had been based upon biblical interpretations, made by individuals who read too much (or too little)into them. This was different, borne out of Men’s technological dependence.

Western civilization yields its powers to technology. Philosophers, and opinion-makers talked about this before 2000.

In medieval times, people put their faith in God.

Know we foreclose our faith to technological devices.

Y2K should have brought us this awareness, but people ignored it. But it’s too late to change the train.

The lesson was there, ready to be learned, and we never did.