“You know, HAL 9000 became operational today, in Urbana, Illinois.”

That was actually the first time I saw the film (January 12, 1997); as my mother found it to be unacceptable that I hadn’t yet read the book or seen the film, and immediately took me to the video store. I can’t tell you how big of a smile that memory brings to my face, still…

With Y2K, It all actually reminds me a lot of the Cold War era scares. If anything, it’s humorous to me; the way the news treats subjects. They are (unsurprisingly) out of touch. It’s almost like having a conversation with your parents (or grandparents) about computers or games.

Really, what amazes me the most, is the fact that so many people actually believed the end of the world was rapidly approaching. The assumption was that Russia’s nuclear stockpiles were not ‘Y2K Compliant’; which would, of course, cause all of the nukes to immediately launch and decimate America. Practically everybody I know was stocking their war bunker up until New Years, expecting to have to kill their neighbors when they come poking around for supplies. Ridiculous.

I think a lot of the scare was the assumption that anything electric would fail (home appliances and all). I remember hearing people that were worried about their refrigerators being ‘Y2K Compliant’. And in that regard, it certainly was a hoax.

I’m not an expert on the subject, but I believe the Y2K bug was grossly exaggerated. We weren’t nuked, society didn’t collapse, and the world was still around in the morning. And I don’t think we were really ever at risk for such cataclysmic disasters.

It would be interesting to have a professionally produced radio show or video program, documenting the truths against the myths.

Just for the sake of humor, I hereby proclaim that the Sega Dreamcast failed – not because of the impending launch of the PS2 – but rather, because it launched amidst the Y2K scare!

I graduated high school in 2000, and I spent the first half of my senior year (or rather, the latter half of 1999) breathlessly waiting to see what would happen. So for my own part, I didn’t so much feel the Y2K thingie was a hoax as it was a letdown. You know those children who are sort of excited about the coming tornadoes, who secretly hope the trees fall down in the front yard?

I recall, during the Y2K scare, many of my friends and neighbors supplying their homes with enough supplies to last the oncoming nuclear winter. In fact, I remember on the eve of Year Zero, my best friend’s family mocked me for not preparing, but told me I’d be welcome to some bottles of water and canned beans, when society inevitably collapses in the morning.

They were also certain that Jesus Christ would return to Earth the next morning, and that I – a non-believer – would be cast into the unquenchable hellfire of lake Erie. I was told that it wasn’t too late to change my mind.

How nice: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKv563gbJbE
Oh, and the Macintosh conspiracy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWCQk5YR_qw

And so, I spent the day laughing at these people, and at all of the chaos ensuing in the streets; as people unloaded their wholesale payloads into their bunkers, desperately keeping track of the time; counting down every second as if it were their last.

For when the sun set that night, to rise upon tomorrow, America would be only that of ash and brimstone. The ball drop would bring an end to the Age of Man. Judgment Day was upon us. Dick Clark was one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

At least, that was the supported theory.

‘Y2K-Compliant’. What a term for the books. Some day, they’ll make a terrible film about this whole ordeal. Then, we’ll be sorry.