Arthur C. Clarke Warns Of Y2k Bug Chaos

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Just an FYI: Reuters reports some Y2K comments by Arthur C. Clarke, which can be found at:

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines/tc/story.html?s=v/nm/19990120/tc/clarke_1.html

Perhaps someone forgot to test HAL for date related code. :-)

Jerry

-- Jerry B (skeptic76@erols.com), January 20, 1999

Answers

According to the article...

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines/tc/story.html?s=v/nm/19990120/tc/ clarke_1.html

...Arthur C. Clarke 10 years ago had described the 2000 bug in his book "The Ghost from the Grand Banks"...

-- Kevin (mixesmusic@worldnet.att.net), January 20, 1999.


Kevin, thanks for the name of the book. The first book by Clarke I read was, Childhood's End, years and years ago. It made such an impression I've never forgotten it.

-- gilda jessie (jess@listbot.com), January 21, 1999.

He obviously expects things to be fixed within a year or so - read the article.

-- Paul Davis (davisp1953@yahoo.com), January 21, 1999.

Yeah, Paul, it looks like he can't separate his fiction from his facts.

-- Franklin Journier (ready4y2k@yahoo.com), January 21, 1999.

I REALLY am a big fan of ACC. Used to read his books in the school library in the 60's/70's - he invented the comms. satellite, pretty much. Was one of the first owners of a computer in Sri Lanka.

BUT - I think he's been playing too much ping pong in the sun (only mad dogs and Englishmen... :) ), much as I hate to say this I believe he's got this one wrong. Y2K I mean.

Take "2001 A Space Odyssey" - a masterpiece, granted, way way ahead of it's time - BUT, the timeline is all wrong, we, alas, don't have computers like HAL (unfortunately, because HAL would have fixed all the code by now [HAL wouldn't want all his little brothers crapping out on him in his quest to transmogrify into a "Human" would he?? :) ].)

We also don't have a space station, or cryogenic suspended animation etc. etc. Clarke was on the right track but way wrong with the timeline.

It's quite obvious ACC is a computer and technology junkie - for this reason he is the LAST person that would predict the demise of his "playthings". This is my attempt at a little psychology of the man - I greatly respect him, but in this case I really feel he's way out of touch with reality. Hot sun, rum punches, sarongs and beaches... second thoughts, HE'S WAY IN TOUCH WITH REALITY!!! :))

I wonder if he's ever heard the prophecy on my signature line? I would greatly value his interpretation of it (I think he and Sagan have/had very different public and private personas.)

Andy

"The conveniences and comforts of humanity in general will be linked up by one mechanism, which will produce comforts and conveniences beyond human imagination. But the smallest mistake will bring the whole mechanism to a certain collapse. In this way the end of the world will be brought about."

HAL9000, 2001, (Human Wannabe)

-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), January 21, 1999.



carl sagan said a lot of things that i disagreed with. but he did say one thing which is marvelous and which applies to all situations, "Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence." it almost makes a person think.

-- jocelyne slough (jonslough@tln.net), January 21, 1999.

And while inventing the 24 hour comm. satellite in that story, he had his villain "pollute" the airwaves with unjammable violence, sex, and filth in the name of "artistry" and "freedom of expression" that sated the masses and allowed easier domination by the head honcho would-be world tyrant villain-type.

Sound like cable/satellite's regular fare of HBO, Showtime, MTV, Jerry Springer, etc. to you?

By the way, one main failure mechanism identified by MicroSoft has the acronym HAL (I "think" the acronym was HTML Access Library, maybe High Access Library, something like that.)

-- Robert A. Cook, PE (Kennesaw, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), January 21, 1999.


HAL = IBM - 1

-- Nathan (nospam@all.com), January 22, 1999.

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