Y2K - don't panic!

Many computer systems were made only to recognise a two digit date and it is thought that the turn of the century will bring problems. Having worked on the millennium compliance programme for a major plc for over a year (a long time in Y2K terms), Phil Reid gives his insights into the facts and fantasies of the year 2000 computer bug.
Much of what is said about the so called 'Millennium bug' is mere sensationalism. Admittedly some computer systems did need fixing and no doubt there will be an amount of disruption on January 1 2000 and also around February 29 2000 (yes, 2000 AD is a leap year although some computers will not recognise it as such).
Some insurance companies are implying that even household items may be affected, and not able to perform all their functions or no longer working at all. But the idea that people's home electrical appliances will spontaneously pack up is, it seems to me, plain scare- mongering.

Household appliances

Very few of the items around the home have any knowledge of the date, and even of those that do store the date, fewer still will actually use the date for something important. Think of a micro-wave oven. If you have spent a lot of money on a top of the range microwave with built-in calendar, the worst thing that could happen on 1/1/2000 is that the date will be wrong (e.g. 1900 instead of 2000) or incoherent (e.g. 0/0/00). But you will still be able to defrost your peas even if your microwave is confused about the year!
What about your home PC ? Here there may be more of a problem. The first time you switch it on in 2000 AD, it may think it is 1980 or some other year, but it will still work. And once you reset the date manually there should not be any more problems.
So, no Y2K gremlins lurking in your hoover, toaster or microwave, but what about bigger things like electricity supply, water, gas, transport etc.? And what about the banks which look after our savings? Again, here the picture is not anywhere near as bad as the doomsday merchants would have us believe. Telephone exchanges, like your micro-wave, do not just pack up either. Calls will get through, whatever year the exchange thinks it is. The same goes for most equipment used in other industries. There are some exceptions to this, but UK industry has spent and is spending a lot of money on finding the problems and fixing them before they have a chance to go wrong.

Big information systems

The most problematic are big computer-based information systems which rely on the date. For example, a system which calculates the number of years until my retirement in 2033 AD will come out with a nonsense answer if only two digits are used for the year. Let's think, for example, of 33 minus 99. It gives -66 years as the answer. But 2033 minus 1999 gives the correct answer of 34 years.
Thankfully, these systems were the very first things the so-called 'Millennium bug busters' went to work on. They may not get them all fixed in time, but the critical ones will be. For example, the electronic system through which most of us get paid (BACS) was given a clean bill of health in November 1998.
So, no need for panic buying of baked beans and tomato soup; no need to draw all your money out of the bank; no need to retreat to a remote Scottish island. Personally, I believe there could be more problems if people start panicking than would ever have come from the millennium bug. Sadly it seems that some Christian groups are contributing to the hysteria without any real grasp of the technical issues involved.
Whatever you make of the millennium, the Dome and all the celebrations, it is a great opportunity to share the Christian message in a country where so few have really heard it. It would be best to concentrate on this rather than worrying about a 'millennium doomsday.'

Phil Reid,
Guildford

© Evangelicals Now - January 1999
Please consider supporting this ministry by subscribing.

• Request Free Sample

Main Articles

• Why forgiveness?
  Consideration of the relationship between chuch and state particularly with regard to the political situation in Ireland
• One little foot
  The story of a doctor's struggle with his conscience as to whether he should allow a deformed baby to die at birth
• Juggling work, family and church
  The difficulties of getting the right balance of priorities in our lives
• Feel good about yourself
  The war over self-esteem and self-control (reprinted from World Magazine)
• Proverbs and the power of words
  How words can powerfully affect our thoughts, beliefs, values and thus our actions
• The axe laid to the root
  An extract from a sermon preached in 1931 on the root of man's problem
• Y2K - don't panic!
  The facts and fantasies of the Year 2000 computer bug
• Y2K - is it doomsday?
  The predictions of social breakdown at the turn of the century

Other articles

• Hope Floats
• Thank You God - A Book of Children's Prayers
• Brief reviews of various books suitable as Christmas presents
• The King's Collection - CD recording of the choir of King's College in Cambridge
• Matters of Life and Death - An extract from the book Matters of Life and Death showing how the Hippocratic - Christian consensus guiding all doctors is being eroded
• God - The Evidence (The reconciliation of faith and reason in a post-secular world)
• Legend - The Genesis of Civlisation
• Interpreting Charismatic Experience
• Behind The Smile
• Awaiting the Millennium - A history of end-time thinking
• People Who Made History
• For the Love of God - A Daily Companion to Discovering God's Word
• 365 Days with Spurgeon