David Eggleston Review of Literature 2/24/99 Teri Ferguson Y2K Bug The turn
of the century is rapidly approaching. This should be a time of high hopes for
the future; the United States has advanced in all sorts of technology. The
United States has advanced a great deal with computers, which are able to
automate many difficult jobs, calculate extravagant equations, and make life
easier for most people. The computer is an amazing tool allowing the United
States to excel in the world. But, computers can also be the loadstone of the
United States in the year 2000. The computer bug commonly known as Y2K can cause
this. Y2K will cause a computer’s date registry to read “00” in which the
computer will interpret “1900”. Many people have their own opinions about how
this will effect the United States and to what degree it will be effected, if
the United States will be effected at all. A writer for Time Magazine states
that there are wide ranges of people that are being effected in different ways
by the Y2K problem. The author describes how many people are preparing for the
worst and that some of those people believe that the Biblical Armageddon will
arrive in the year 2000. It was stated that the Y2K problem is just another
thing to keep people entertained. This was described by how the movie industry
moved from spy movies such as “James Bond” at the end of the cold war to more
sci-fi movies such as “Godzilla” because there was no real world problem.
The purpose of this article is to simply point out that there is an actual
problem with the Y2K phenomenon in order to make people aware that there are
dangers even if it is just in the form of doomsayers. These points of the author
are strong enough and realistic enough to make the problem known to the people
but does not display any idea one way or the other. A marketing organization
known as Arial Marketing posted a contingency plan on the internet that gives a
view that there is going to be a strong enough problem with Y2K that one must
prepare for it. This argument is supported by a few quotes from officials and
high-ranking people in their respective fields. Arial Marketing made this
posting slanting toward the fact that there will definitely be a problem with
Y2K. Arial Marketing has even posted bad and a worst case preparation table. The
purpose of this site is to tell people that their will be a Y2K problem and that
in order to help people prepare for a situation Eggleston 2 two. This opinion is
a strong one that is well presented and cautious with the quotes from many
people backing it up. In “The Year 2000 Problem: The Year the Earth Stands
Still” Written by a one Gary North, Gary North clearly argues his own opinion
about the Y2K problem. He really does not support his case by any facts other
than his strong determination to make sure that everyone knows his point of
view. The point of view that he tends to support is one of terrible visions of
the absolute worst case scenario of the Y2K problem. He does not have any other
kind of opinion of anything less and is quite sure of the idea that the world
will crash because of the Y2K problem.
The purpose of this article is to display Gary North’s opinion of the Y2K
problem in order to get people to prepare for the worst. The argument that Gary
North has presented is a weak one for he has only state opinionated facts and
has not supported this argument with any hard evidence. In just under a year the
year 2000 will arrive with many hopes but it will also arrive with a Y2K bug.
This bug will definitely effect some things, and maybe effect major things. The
only thing that the people can do is simply prepare for the worst and hope for
the best. Many organizations and even the government of the United States are
working and hacking at this problem. Many organizations are making headway and
will be ready to great the new millennium; others will most likely still be
cracking down on the problem. The thing that the individual all the way to the
general population must realize is that worrying and predicting doom are the
major problems that society is facing and will face during the year 2000.
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