That put's things un a different light ;-) I was not aware of this.
>The operative sentence here is "No-one can tell for sure what the extent
>of the damage will be." That is really the only thing you can say with
>any certainty about Y2K.
Get back to you in 630 days ;-)
>Let me turn the question around. Suppose power and phones stay up.
>It should be clear that most of the problems can be dealt with by human
>ingenuity. People are not slaves to their machines. If some computers
>don't work, they may have to do things a little slower, but after a few
>days they will adjust.
Hmmm, I'd like to see the largest Dutch retail coporation do it's logistics
on paper (they're using a system that makes deep-blue look whimpy to
control their overnight 'just-in-time' supply system - It's suposed to be
y2k-proof, soon we'll know). That should solve a lot of unemployent though ;-)
>The bulletin board
>discussions were dominated by the same kinds of people who have been
>predicting disaster since the 1970's.
I've now got 24 hrs worth of discussion in a sepeate malbox and it seems to
support your statement (see below).
Dan Fabulich <daniel.fabulich@yale.edu> wrote:
>Before I hear "Yeah, well, you're in denial," we had best keep in mind that
>I would also be "in denial" if you told me the sun wouldn't rise tomorrow.
Well, I just read this website.... ;-) OK, I'l try to be less naive (someday).
>This kind of attitude, however, is the sort that could cause some real
>damage. If everyone, afraid that the US economy is going to crash, pulls
>all their money out, they CAN cause it to crash. But this will not be due
>to a technical error, only due to people spreading horror stories like
these.
Yep, that's me trying to bring about the downfall of the US gov't (it seems
a good way to settle some of the other discussions ;-). Actually it's
interesting to see that these memes seem to be much widespread in the US.
Any ideas's on how this (cultural?) difference came about?
Thanks for the lesson in critical web-reading.
Regards,
Arjen
This was posted by someone in a related y2k-forum, it might give some
indication about what kind of people are on these forums (the poster
previously stated some of the things that were also stated on this list by
Hal and Dan):
>From: neuhardt@compuserve.com
>
>Hmm. Maybe that last posting wasn't such a good idea. In less than two
hours, my e-mail inbox has received numerous messages, two with Word
macro-viruses in the attachments (nice try, folks!), several calling me
(figuratively, of course) an ignorant fathead who allows himself to be a
puppet of the corrupt establishment, one quoting scripture as to the the
events leading up to and just after the Second Coming, and one wishing me a
good time as I burn in Hell for daring to besmirtch the good Dr. North.
Perhaps a bit of clarification is in order.
>
>While I do not even remotely agree with Dr. North's religious, political
or economic views, I do find some of his Y2K points interesting and thought
provoking. In reading his material, it caused me to ask questions I had not
thought to ask before. Therefore, even though I do not agree with the bulk
of his conclusions, I feel I have profited from reading his work.
>
>As I have in the past, I will respond to email from people who want to
discuss Y2K issues as best I can, but please don't flood me with either
hate mail or attempts to draw me into a religious discussion. The hate mail
only serves to degrade the sender and I will not debate religion.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Arjen Kamphuis | Learn as if you will live forever.
mountain@knoware.nl | Live as though you will die tomorrow.
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