On This Day Pre-Y2K
Confused by any of the jargon you see below? Check the Y2K Glossary!
January 16, 1999 Permalink
To get back to the point: probability is not the issue because, as I have demonstrated by setting obsurdly optimistic probability-of-success values, the SYSTEMIC nature of the y2k issue VIRTUALLY GUARANTEES that we will have critical failures. Now once a critical failure occurs then all those “hidden complexities and interrelationships” that Wheatly refers to will surely rear their ugly heads to exacerbate and compound existing problems which will RAPIDLY accelerate economic collapse.
To site just one example: if sewage is not removed from urban areas, how long would it take to precipitate a severe emergency through rioting, and disease? And because death will rapidly follow, how long will it take disease to spread to surrounding areas? Do we need to know what probability sewage plant have to succeed with their y2k remediation? No we don’t because a calamity that I have just described can come from almost ANY SOURCE. The point is WE ARE EXTREMELY VULNERABLE TO A CALAMITY. Let that anthropologists of the twenty second century pick apart our remains to figure out how it all started.
—Dr. Roger Altman, Time Bomb 2000 Forum (LUSENET), 01/16/99
Tried to log onto the Department of Energy’s home page to see what they had to say about “current events” and this is what I logged on to:
“The U.S. Department of Energy Home Page is experiencing intermittent outages due to the effects of severe winter weather. We apologize for any inconveniences this may cause and are working to restore uninterrupted service as soon as possible.”
Makes one think about things..........
—Dave Kutchko, comp.software.year-2000, 01/16/99
We hear a lot about this or that expert being “cautiously optimistic.” But that expert is always talking about English-speaking countries. He says nothing about Asia, Europe, and Latin America.
There is a narrow focus of this optimism: nationalistic or at least Anglo-American. These people never discuss what the y2k ramifications are for the international division of labor. It’s as if the U.S. were an island without dependence on the world economy.
Tell me why I should be optimistic when Asia’s banks are not going to make the deadline. Tell me why the collapse of Latin America is not going to affect demand for U.S. goods. Tell me what the world economy will look like when Europe’s computers crash.
—Gary North, garynorth.com, 01/16/99
