As I work on my response to Cherri's question (Scroll down to October 26), the following piece serves as a clue to the future:

TEN YEARS AFTER Y2K

The Discontinuity
Denial
The End of the Industrial Age
The End of Certainty
The End of Authority
Why didn't we see what was coming?
A Psychospiritual Pole-Shift
A Carrier Wave for Change
The Lessons of Chaos and Complexity

It's published at: http://www.justincasey2k.com/tenyearsafter.htm

Critt
277 Beasley Road
Wilmington, North Carolina 28409
910-790-5677
critt@critt.com

-- Critt Jarvis (critt@critt.com), October 28, 1999

Answers

BRING OUT YER DEAD!!! BRING OUT YER DEAD!!!!!!

-- Jay Urban (Jayho99@aol.com), October 28, 1999.

I though the 10 years piece, while reasonably well-written, was fairly lame in that it is so vague. It seems to be more a platform for pushing some standard social philosophies and generic ideas for social reform rather than a concrete (though fictional) attempt at a genuine retrospective. From 10 years later, rather than giving vague lectures on the shifty nature of institutional authority (as if we all don't know that), go out on a limb, have some fun, give us some interesting specifics - what blew up, how many unemployed, how many planes fell from the sky, ...

-- Count Vronsky (vronsky@anna.lit), October 28, 1999.

The common thread between this story and the one Robert Waldrop wrote on Kansas City after y2k is an unswerving faith in the inherent goodness of normal human beings. Everyone pulls together and helps others come through the mess. While hoping that this is indeed the case, I must admit that I don't have that same level of faith. Given human tendencies toward fear, panic, greed, and jealousy, coupled with the dynamics of mob rule and the madness of crowds, means to me that cities can become very dangerous places. I must admit the possibility that the survivors may learn to work together, but there may be a lot of death and destruction between here and there.

One other thing that occured to me is that both of these stories glossed over the possibility of epidemics caused by failures in the water or sewage systems. It could very well be that the cities empty out because of the disease there. That would throw another monkey wrench into these optimistic projections.

-- rob minor (rbminor@hotmail.com), October 28, 1999.

"It could very well be that the cities empty out because of the disease there."

Three ways a city can "empty out":

Massive fatalities; massive emigration; both of these together.

Massive emigration, if it occurs, would cause extraordinary problems in outlying areas.

-- Tom Carey (tomcarey@mindspring.com), October 28, 1999.