Just wanted everyone to know that there is an article in Wired this month about Year 2k survivalists. They've also got the lady who started the Cassandra project in there. One guy, Scott Olmstead, has this home in the desert surrounded by a barbed wire fence. He's trying to be completely prepared and isolated. Is it just me who can imagine him having a heart attack or getting bitten by a poisonous snake or locking himself out of his enclosure with no one to help? Is it just me who thinks control over our destiny is just an illusion?

-- Amy Leone (aleone@amp.com), July 20, 1998

Answers

I saw an article a few weeks back in the Wall Street Journal about this management consultant from CA who was making big bucks on this thesis of "The Long Boom". Briefly, he believes that the economy will grow continuously for the next 20-30 years with no downturns because of computer technology. As you can guess, Y2k is a big bummer to this worldview. According to the WSJ, this consultant is an investor in WIred Magazine, and WSJ critisized Wired for publishing lots of "Long Boom" articles without mentioning that the author was a part-owner in the magazine.

I have searched each issue of Wired for a mention of Y2k. Not a peep. Not until this August issue. The buzz was too lound. They had to say something. Rather than investigate the reality of Y2k, they decided to focus on the Y2k survivalists. A fun way of half mentioning the crisis and half mocking it, without having to say which way the magazine sits on the issue.

I mention this background so people can understand the article when they read it. E-mail Wired and ask they look at the issue squarely without filtering it through other's.

-- David Holladay (davidh@rdcbraille.com), July 20, 1998.

Why should he upset the apple cart? They are making their money now while they can. Since they don't want to print the real issue, it's easier for people to attack others making them look foolish. Haven't all of us laughed at one time or another at some psyhic, or those that decided last year to take a ride on Halebop (spelling) comet? I'm just going about my business doing what I have to do everyday just to survive! Have any of you thought about that today? Isn't that what we do everyday regardless of a crisis?

-- Barb-Douglas (bardou@yahoo.com), July 20, 1998.