Item From the Past: Y2-OK

I spent the turn of the year 1999 to 2000 in Japan, and when I got back to the United States, wrote this:

January 12, 2000

Shucks, the world didn’t end. Not even one errant missile taking out a mid-sized city (say, Pusan; who would care?) My favorite Y2K scenario I ran across last year went something like this, with complete disregard to the way the world, and human psychology, works: With the computers down, no one will be able to be paid. In that case, the people who could fix the computers would refuse to work, since they won’t get paid. And in that case, the computers would never be fixed, we would all become savages, and oh yes, don’t forget to buy my post-2000 survival book, only $29.95 while your money is still good.

Even the Daily Yomiuri ran a story, on the 4th, about some mug in Connecticut (a computer engineer, supposedly) who spent $30,000 or so on survival gear. But then again, he sounded like a survivalist anyway, perhaps a member of the Committee of Public Safety Sons of Liberty Free Republic of Connecticut Militia. Ah, well, from now on, Y2K will be something that dates you: “Yeah, I remember all that. It was back when there was more than one media company.”