I was a front line worker during Y2K with 60 software updates across 600 systems from Texas to Guam.
I had to run a color coded Excel sheet to keep it all straight, it was CRAZY.
In my case, because it was the automotive industry, it also all had to be done early because of the '00 model year cars. Like I say, I’ve never seen people work harder.
Even then, there were still problems outside our control:
https://www.capecodtimes.com/story/news/1999/10/13/y2k-brings-back-horseless-carriages/51026660007/
So you were administering systems or something similar? Then sure, I am sure for you and your team it brought you together (and maybe some tension at times). Glad it went well. But society as a whole? Eh
That’s the challenge though. On a micro level it’s easy. I work in mental health and I have similar stories from my days working in hospitals (I do outpatient work now) where our unit staff have banded together for challenges. Covid was like that at the beginning. Then it fell apart because everything became politicized thanks to our dogshit leadership at the time
But finding something that can (for the most part) unite all of society? Even limiting it to just the US that’s a talllllll order. Especially if you also don’t want it to fall apart after a month like the Covid thing
I was administering a small part of a system, probably 1/3rd of the entire server environment. There was another team doing the financial software and another team doing the hardware side.
But, yeah, society as a whole I think did notice. There was an up-tick in “prepperdom” or whatever you want to call it, especially when this story broke:
I had a lot of non-technical people asking me what it was all about and I explained it like this:
Let’s say, on 1/1, the government has decided to issue everbody new quarters and all your old quarters are going to go away.
1:1 - you won’t lose any money, but the new quarters they’re handing out won’t work in ANY vending machine. Everything with a coin slot needs to be updated.
Now, if you have the proper tools, and knowledge, updating one machine is not a big deal.
But now you have to update every machine on your block, in your neighborhood, in your city, in your county, in your state, in the entire country, in the whole world…
Suddenly the scale is far, far bigger.
To this day, I’m stunned we pulled it off without more problems. There was the “horseless carriage” bit noted above, there was another problem with a taxi system in, I wanna say Thailand?
Singapore! I wasn’t that far off!
The only system that has sustained common cause in human societies long-term is religion. It’s outlasted nationalism and political ideologies, noble families and dynasties, and even the collapse of civilizations.
Which is terrifying, when you consider how much violence has been done in the name of religion throughout human history. Why do none of our more productive ideas and organizing principles have such longevity?
