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Somewhere back in the mists of time, some anonymous computer pioneer
shrugged his or her shoulders and said, "Heck, we'll just go back and fix
that later." Now look what's happened: Millions of computers worldwide
don't know how to express dates after 1999, and when they try to, they
self-destruct. And yes, these are the same computers that handle the
world's finances, its utilities, its satellites, its air traffic control
towers, its intercontinental ballistic missiles and its Interactive Barney
dolls. The Year 2000 Problem, or Y2K, is nothing if not all-pervasive.
Nineteen ninety-eight was the year that the media and the government woke
up to the threat
of Y2K. April saw the creation of a special Senate Y2K committee; the
Department of Defense announced that its $1.9 billion Y2K effort had
managed to repair only 9 percent of its core computer systems; and what we
heard from overseas -- Japan, Russia, South America, and various Third
World markets -- was even worse. Our military is our own problem to fix,
but our financial systems are intimately interwoven with those of other
countries, which might not have the resources to tackle the problem, and if
they're not ready on December 31, 1999, they just might drag the United
States down with them. Stock up on bottled water now, and don't forget to
bury a few Krugerrands in the backyard.
Related Coverage:
TIME.com's Y2K Central
The Federal Reserve Board
Westergaard Year 2000
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