Archive on 4 , about what one previewer called ‘a now forgotten but at the time taken quite seriously’ Millennium Bug showed that it was in fact being taken very seriously at the time, or so it seemed to those of us who listened uncomprehendingly to all those experts predicting doom.
I seem to remember even hearing Patrick Bossert, the boy who made a lot of money from a book about how to do Rubik’s cube, popping up somewhere as an adviser on how to cope with the threat
The programme demonstrated two things: We humans need such stories, just as we did when we were little
And being sensible does not help in such circumstances. The Cambridge professor whose thorough study showed that the problem was very unlikely to arise, & if it did the solution was to switch the machine off then switch it back on, got nowhere, even with the help of the University’s PR department.
And still few pay heed to the real threat to Life As We Know It – when the electricity goes off, ordinary life will not just be illegal, it will be impossible. The computers really will not work then
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Labour’s war cry
Labour’s war cry
