I keep meeting people who say, I don't have a computer/don't use one on the job/keep backups and hard copy etc. etc. So y2k won't affect me very much.

I try to explain that if you use power, or eat food, or drink water, or use a bank, or drive on roads, or use the telephone, or buy *anything*, or get any kind of medical/dental care, or have a job, you are a bigtime computer user, whether you realize it or not. Even if you do none of these things (and even the Amish rely on the outside world for some things), if you are surrounded by people who do, you are vulnerable.

So far, no luck. I guess computers are so ubiquitous they have become invisible. Has anyone else run into this sort of blindness?

-- Flint (flintc@mindspring.com), October 09, 1998

Answers

I think to one extent or another, all those in denial use this type of logic.

-- Tricia the Canuck (jayles@telusplanet.net), October 09, 1998.

Hi Flint.

I see this everywhere I go.

My brother-in-law (who, by the way, is a robotics expert in the automotive industry) is one of those "I use a Mac. I don't have a problem" people.

It all boils down to research. I've said many times that if you don't have net access, you will not have access to all of the information. And then you actually have to spend the (how many hundreds of hours?) reading all of the articles. In addition to this, you have to have the ability to put two and two together, and intuitively realize the interdependency of systems. And I'm talking about global financial and trade systems as well as domestic computer networks.

You know that I'm no programmer. But I caught on to the problem about 15 minutes after I started reading about it. (After that initial 15 minutes, I was well and truly hooked.) Most people won't take the time.

Either we people who are "Y2k aware" have an extra chromosome that allows us to "see" what is happening, or we have all been abducted by aliens, and had false thoughts implanted in our brains. There are days when I truly wonder about this.......

-- Jo Anne Slaven (slaven@rogerswave.ca), October 09, 1998.

Shhhhh

The implants are a good thing, if it makes us aware. Quiet, or they will come back for them.

-- Uncle Deedah (oncebitten@twiceshy.com), October 09, 1998.

Or maybe we had our "organ Kundabuffer" removed.

-- pshannon (pshannon@inch.com), October 10, 1998.

I know what you mean. Over the summer, I had some medical tests done at an imaging lab, with all kinds of sophisticated equipment. The technician had a title something like "nuclear medicine", she was very sharp. In talking with her between the tests, I mentioned the year 2000 problem. Her reply: Yeah, I hope that our computers are ok. ??? -- It never occured to her that there were lots and lots of "computers" in her equipment!

-- Jack (jsprat@eld.net), October 11, 1998.

I'm really getting tired of hearing "denial" every time an issue like this comes up.

The issue here isn't denial, at least in most cases. The issue is ignorance. Most people don't know how computers work and don't care unless they have to. It's just like cars. If we all had to pass a test on how a car works in order to get a license, most of us wouldn't be driving.

-- Buddy Y. (DC) (buddy@bellatlantic.net), October 12, 1998.

Buddy is right, should not "shoot from the hip", so to speak. At the same time, I think that we should all agree that there does reach a point where someone has had the opportunity to examine the issue, yet insists that everything will work out ok. Example: I printed out recent articles about the National Guard getting prepared in Wisconsin and Iowa. I mean, you would think that SURELY this would act to at least convince someone that MAYBE there really is a Y2K problem. Nope! Now, thats denial!!

-- Jack (jsprat@eld.net), October 13, 1998.