Original subtitles

If our civilization,

the lights go off

and the lights never come back on,

for all intents and purposes, it's going back to dust,

we will turn it back into the Stone Age eventually.

Um...

Because without that power this lifestyle stops.

And you will be back working with clay.

You will be back dealing with one of these.

I happen to be on a year 2000 project

for the company that I work for

in making sure that their systems

are going to make it across the millennium.

We just can't get it all and so...

And so you're here?

Yeah.

Computer buffs have known about it for years,

but the rest of us, well, we're just finding out

about a glitch you might say

in the way most computers are programmed.

There could be a meltdown

when we cross from the year 1999 into 2000.

And even if you don't own a computer,

this is going to affect you in a big way.

I feel like it could be the beginning

of the end of the world.

I feel like our days could be numbered.

I feel like nuclear bombs could go off,

nuclear plants could melt down, we could suffer famine.

And I don't wanna go through this alone.

Y2K.

How can we prepare individually? How can we work together?

And how can we, humankind, utilize Y2K

as an opportunity to look at ourselves,

to analyze where we've been,

and to adjust our sights for the future.

Watch your feet, watch your feet,

watch the cable.

Thank you, both.

- Thank you. - Now, you go on up, go on up.

And, uh...

Yeah. That's okay. Yeah. This is good.

This is good.

Today in California

we are installing six million feet...

Six million feet of computer cables and plugs.

We are putting the future

at the fingertips of your children.

All of you know that the information

and technology explosion

will offer to you

and to the young people of the future,

more opportunities and challenges

than any generations of Americans has ever seen.

Good morning, Mr. President.

Come down, you can see it on the camera there.

Good morning, Mr. Vice President.

- Morning, Ron. - Hey, Mr. Secretary.

Oh, hold on.

- So now you can say it. - Good morning, Ron.

How's it going there, Ron?

We gotta wait for them to send back audio.

Takes a few seconds here. Come on.

It's great here. We're at Freeport Elementary School.

We got a fully wired school

hooked into the information superhighway

just like you, Mr. President,

the vice president promised to be.

You know, the vice president and I...

have communications like this, uh,

at the Pentagon with all of our military leaders

around the world.

I'm really glad to see that you've got

this kind of communication for education.

If more people can communicate directly like this

and look at each other face to face,

that will, I think, reduce the need

for military confrontation. I think it'll bring

people together all over the world.

And it's really exciting to see us here looking at you

and have this conversation.

I hope you all are as excited about it as we are.

Everybody's excited here, Mr. President.

Why don't we give a big cheer

and let's show him how excited we are, all right?

I like this, does it...

- Top of the range. - Does it? Let's see.

Car cord.

I can take it in the car!

Three-inch screen.

I like this one, hun.

It can do batteries too.

You mean you can take a movie

and they'll put it on the hard drive

and you can show it back.

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

- Oh, c'mon. - EMPLOYEE Yeah, yeah.

There it is right here.

You guys, Bill, cut it all out.

You cut it.

We humans are tool builders

and we can fashion tools that amplify

these inherent abilities that we have

to spectacular magnitudes. And so for me,

a computer has always been a bicycle of the mind.

Something that takes us far beyond

our inherent abilities.

Microsoft will be the most powerful company

in the 21st century. Do you see that?

No, I really don't.

Uh, we're a company that makes tools.

But so many people are dependent on those tools.

No, they're not dependent on us.

Once they have those things...

they can use them

and do whatever they choose.

I think a millennia from now

people are gonna look back and say,

"Wow, the late 20th century

was really a great time to be alive on this planet."

Now that I've gone on the internet,

I'd rather be on my computer than doing just about anything.

Any human being can say

whatever he or she wants

and nobody can shut them up.

It means that all of those

wonderful things that have been gelling

in human consciousness all this time,

that were too far out on the fringes,

suddenly get a chance to be part of the mix.

And I think that's a good thing.

I think it's no accident

that the tremendous speed

that we're seeing and development

of this new cyber culture

which is evolving right in front of our eyes,

right around this millennium time.

Why is that?

It's not happening by accident.

It's the actual millennium itself

making this happen. It's like an energy.

It's like a magnet

that the closer you get to it the more it speeds up.

It's almost like a black hole.

So as you hit it right on the year 2000,

the culture is moving at almost maximum speed.

I want to get online. I need a computer!

As ironies go, add this to the list.

Computers that can handle millions of numbers a minute

may spend years stymied by a single one,

the date of the year 2000.

It's a problem called the Millennium Bug

and it will be biting soon.

We can't see the electronic calendar

inside a computer, but if we could,

it would look something like this.

The first two digits of the year, the 19,

are assumed by the computer,

chiseled in stone as far as its memory is concerned.

To save precious storage space, only the last two digits change.

So when the year 1999 ends, virtually all computer calendars

are going to flip over to the next year,

which the computers will read as 1900.

Our systems are broken.

And they're going to fall asunder

when you start entering into them,

data from the 21st century.

There is no debate about that anymore.

Peter de Jager calls himself

a computer age Paul Revere,

trotting all over the globe to warn companies

and governments that "the zeros are coming,

the zeros are coming."

We won't be in a situation,

will we or will we, where cities virtually grind

to a halt on that January 1?

If we don't fix the programs, that's what happens.

Now you're asking me to predict the future.

If everybody listens to us, we'll bypass this.

If everybody starts working on it,

focuses all their energies, we will bypass it.

What you have just communicated to me

is that half this room has no better

than a 50 percent chance

of delivering this project on time.

Do you understand that? Do you realize that?

In 1977, I started as an operator with IBM.

First day on the job, I noticed that our systems

were using two-digit years.

When I brought it up to management,

management said, "Don't worry about it,

it isn't gonna happen for another 23 years, so relax."

I did.

In 1989,

I saw a show, Connections with James Burke.

And the first show was about how in 1965

the entire Skyline went black

because of one single electrical switch.

It can't happen here, well it did.

And the question asked by 25 million people

living in the affected area of 80,000 square miles

was simply, how could it happen?

And no one had an immediate answer.

It was that single device failing,

causing this huge effect.

That made me realize that the year 2000 problem,

these date calculations

in every one of these organizations,

would have a similar impact.

So if we all know there's gonna be this giant problem

and exactly when it's going to happen,

why on earth can't we fix it?

- Here's ABC's Gina Smith. - Just how big is the problem?

Well, imagine someone told you you had to find and replace

every bolt in the Brooklyn Bridge.

That's daunting, but doable.

Now imagine you have to find...

and replace every bolt in every bridge in the world,

and you only have 21 months to do it.

Computers talk to one another,

information is transferred from one system to another.

And if one computer doesn't understand

the change of date,

then other computers are affected by that.

What Y2K is about really is the pervasiveness

of computer technology,

information processing technology,

in our everyday lives.

And personal computers are really the least of it.

It's the big fragile systems, the brittle systems

that are most vulnerable.

Things like power, electric communications,

air traffic control, banking.

These are the things

that we don't think about because they're invisible.

They're transparent in our daily interactions.

But they are in fact computer systems.

It's not just the computer systems

that are interconnected.

It's the economies of the countries

and the individual businesses that are interconnected.

You can have a company like General Motors

that has been working very, very hard on this issue,

but they're dependent upon tiers of suppliers.

And if you can't get the widget that goes into the seat

that goes into the car,

their assembly line is gonna stop.

It's almost like a nightmare.

Uh, literally science fiction.

Computers which control defense missile systems.

Computers which control public transportation systems

are at risk for failure.

But this is much worse than we thought

because billions of computer chips out there

have a time sequence as part of their programs.

Imagine how many things are now run with computer chips

and are connected

to so many other things run by computer chips.

It seems unbelievable, but it's only 535 days from now.

At the stroke of midnight,

when we will usher in a new year,

a new century, a new millennium.

It is a complex test that requires us all

to work together.

Every government agency, every university,

every hospital, every business large and small,

with millions of hours needed

to rewrite billions of lines of code

and hundreds of thousands of interdependent organizations.

This is clearly one of the most

complex management challenges in history.

More than anything else, the year 2000 problem

has revealed how interconnected and interdependent

we have become.

Earlier this year,

the president established the President's Council

on the Year 2000 Conversion and appointed John Koskinen

to head up this effort, having been a part of the effort

to persuade him to come back...

out of retirement and take this on,

I wanna really lay it on thick

because he's really...

He's done a great job.

Why don't you stand up, John, we appreciate what you're doing.

We are at the White House. We're here with John Koskinen.

This is the apex of our trip.

You've been known in papers and articles as the Y2K czar.

How do you react to that?

Well, I'd say, in a way, I suppose,

of focusing on responsibility. But as I said,

it's one of the world's great bag holding jobs.

If it all goes well, nobody will care.

And if it doesn't go well, they'll say

- what was the name of that guy? - Who was that czar?

Has to be a fair amount of pressure, though, you must admit

when the president says,

"Okay, you're my guy to do this."

Not only is it getting

the government itself up to speed,

it's the nation... how to inform the people.

We're still a ways away from the end of next year

and we don't know how much work is actually gonna get done.

All you can say for sure right now

is that there's potential

for significant disruptions around the world.

But also there are a lot of people working very hard

to avoid that problem.

Uh, so at this stage, all you can do is make guesses

or very broad-based estimates about what might happen.

Uh, but I think at this point,

it's very difficult to know for sure.

Four million gallons of raw sewage

spilled out during a failed Y2K test.

They were testing what would happen

if the plant lost power

once the calendar reads January 1st, 2000.

Computer unexpectedly shut our input gate

and didn't tell us that it did that,

shut one of our input gates,

and it backed up the sewer into the park.

Regulatory reports reveal

that early last month

the Peach Bottom nuclear facility

near York, Pennsylvania experienced a serious glitch

when operators tried to fix

a Y2K problem.

When workers advanced clocks to the year 2000,

both the primary and backup

plant monitoring system computers shut down

for seven hours, resulting in a major loss

of emergency assessment capability,

according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

I keep on hearing a lot of things

that there's gonna be mass chaos and confusion in the year 2000.

Right now I'm just studying all the facts

and just see what companies are really prepared for.

I just assumed in America, we'll figure it out.

I can't believe that in this present day and age

with all the modern technology

that everything's gonna collapse.

A lot of people are gonna panic and stockpile things, not fly.

I think it's all a hoax anyway.

You think it's a hoax?

I do. I think it was started by computer programmers.

They must be working on it, are they?

This is the real frontline,

programmers scouring computer codes.

And to understand exactly what they're doing,

you have to be one.

It'd be a D3M because there's hyphens.

I've got to tell you

I don't understand a word you said.

But what you pick up immediately

is that the process of fixing

a single computer program is tedious and time consuming.

Every one is unique

and you have to go through them line by line

to find and fix and test potential problems.

Well actually, I was gonna try to get into something

where you can actually

see me doing something useful here.

Let's see...

This is a fairly straightforward case.

Uh, it's a field in a program just called YR for year.

And the 99 means

it's two numeric possible values.

So these are the kinds of things that the various tools

that we're using help us find.

Just about everything we do

depends on knowing the date something happened,

the date someone was born,

the date they got married, the date they died,

the date they became disabled,

we have to worry about all those things.

There it is.

The whole business of the Millennium Bug

is a bit odd, isn't it?

We can put a tiny little machine on Mars to roam around

and we've got a problem with a couple of digits.

Doesn't make much sense, does it?

I mean, who were the programming geniuses

who decided that we only needed two digits

instead of four.

Programmers have been telling management

right from the start,

this will not work in the year 2000.

And management said that is outside

my six-year timeframe

for financial analysis and, you know,

reports to shareholders,

so we're not going to worry about it.

The kind of computer power you can now get on a laptop

used to require a system that was so large it literally

had to be housed in its own building.

So, the sheer expense of computing

began to really add up.

That's when major businesses and government institutions

began finding ways to cut corners.

And one of the most fateful cost-cutting measures

was to deliberately

leave out the first two digits of the year date.

Using two digits rather than four

made good economic sense.

It was a choice, worldwide.

Sort of like the original sin.

If we dig still deeper,

beyond the technical explanations,

we could probably start with a name, Grace Hopper,

coiner of the term "bug."

- I - was very fortunate

the Navy ordered me to the first big computer

in the United States, Mark One at Harvard.

How did you know so much about computers then?

- I didn't. - How did you...

- It was the first one. - Yeah.

We were building Mark Two the summer of 1945.

It was a hot summer in Cambridge and Mark Two stopped.

We finally located the failing relay.

It was one of the big signal relays.

And inside the relay,

beaten to death by the relay contacts

was a moth about this big.

So the operator got a pair of tweezers

and very carefully fished the moth out of the relay.

Put it in the logbook,

put scotch tape over it.

And below it he wrote, "First actual bug found."

You wrote something somewhere.

You don't do anything in the Navy

without a piece of paper.

- Mm-hmm. - They all come out of computers.

Same thing's true with your big companies.

If those computers stopped, this whole country

would come to a screeching halt.

Mm-hmm.

People are scared of computers, just as I can remember.

There were people who were scared to death

of telephones.

Wouldn't go near them.

There were people who thought gas light was safe,

but electric light wasn't very safe.

We've always gone through this with every change.

Fulfilling absolute decree in casual simplicity.

All of this is designed to free men and women

from the drudgery and monotony of pushing paper.

Certainly not a 1984-ish vision at all.

Uh, it's just gonna be very gradual

and very human and will seduce you

into learning how to use it.

In just two decades, the speed of computers

has improved over 100 times.

At the core of our society,

a world of accelerating change, irreversible change.

For just as the Industrial Revolution

replaced man's muscles as an economic asset,

so the computer threatens

to make valueless the menial mentality.

By the year 2000,

computers will invade our privacy,

on a scale hardly imaginable. They will be interconnected

and unless prevented by new legislation,

will be able to sell information.

Everybody knows what's happening in every part of the world

within seconds.

And it's affecting every part of our lives.

It's something... We can't get away from it.

I think we will have to just...

I don't know, I don't know what's gonna happen.

It is, ironically, that we're too well-informed,

we know too much.

We've lost forever,

the opportunity to live in innocence

about how our society works, or doesn't work.

Is it gonna bring us closer together

or will it drive us further apart?

It's gonna do both, ironically.

It can bring the world closer together,

but you can also use it to avoid human contact.

We have become very, very dependent

on computer technology.

We are going to be stress tested

by the year 2000 problem.

How could the omission of two simple digits

affect the destiny of all humankind?

Y2K? What does it mean?

How will it affect you, your family, your community,

your nation,

our world?

In a very real way, we're all responsible for Y2K.

And there's no one to blame, morally or otherwise.

We've all benefited from the technologies

which have improved our lives.

And we have therefore encouraged

those same technologies to develop

at ever more accelerated rates.

And yes, perhaps we are now realizing

that we've taken them a bit for granted

and have indeed become too dependent

upon the by-products of our collective innovations.

How fragile do we now find ourselves

before the juggernaut of our own inventions.

However, our individual and collective response to Y2K

is actually far more important than Y2K itself.

We know that Y2K is not about computers alone.

Y2K is about connection.

And it's a metaphor

for us being connected with each other.

This group started with a group of people

who got together and said,

"Well, what can we do to promote community preparedness

for Y2K and beyond?"

"What do we do to create the kind of community

that America is known for?"

Those small communities where you walk down the street,

you say, "Hi, how are you, Stalone?"

"How you doing Bill?"

"How you doing, Suzie? Good to see you again, Jim."

We all know that we've got a community like that.

Mother Teresa once said that America

was the loneliest country in the world

and it's because we don't have community anymore.

And if...

if this is what comes out of this

and there isn't a problem,

but we've learned how to work together.

I don't think that's...

You know, I don't think that's a waste, um,

'cause I know a lot of us feel that the way we've been living

isn't totally satisfying.

So, I think personally, Y2K is more of a catalyst

of a lot of things

that's been going on for a long time.

If I have my supply of food,

but the people next to me don't have food,

it's not gonna serve me well.

So everybody has to be provided for.

So that's why I think it's a collective problem,

it's a social problem.

It's no longer a technological problem.

It's a social problem.

What do you guys think about all the myths

going around about the Y2K

as far as, like, computers shutting down?

My perspective of it is that if man made it,

it can fall apart. I mean, you know what I mean?

So I think that if we do our responsibility

of making sure that our things are safe,

making sure that our families' things are safe

and making sure that things in our neighborhood are compliant.

Then if everyone did that, then we will be able to operate

and function even if something did go wrong.

I think it's everybody's responsibility

to look out for everybody.

The whole process with, you know,

"It's Y2K, I'm gonna make sure that,

you know, my neighborhood has a power generator,

but, you know, that neighborhood over there.

I don't know, that's not me.

I don't have to worry about it, it's not my problem."

You know? I think, you know, it's everybody's problem.

If it's a problem at all.

I think that our governments are paranoid

probably just as much as any other person

- on the street is... - Mm-hmm.

Because nobody knows what's gonna happen.

Nobody knows

what the outcome of that is gonna be.

I hope, really, I pray

that people don't panic, you know?

'Cause I think... I think panic

is gonna be the worst problem of the Y2K.

Scott Olmstead led us more than 100 miles

into the desert.

His hideaway is a secret retreat

known only to his family.

But Scott Olmsted is not a member

of some fringe survivalist group.

He's a well-paid computer programmer

who says he's seen the potential for disaster firsthand.

I could see a lot of crime, I could see looting and arson,

burning, the kinds of things that happened in the LA riots.

I could see a lot of desperate people

who don't have food,

maybe they don't have water,

maybe they don't have electricity.

Um, maybe they've lost all their savings,

because the banks have collapsed

or the stock market has collapsed.

All those things are possibilities.

We are making preparations for ourselves

and for some family members.

There is no way that we can feed

or otherwise help, you know, dozens or hundreds of people.

And it's just best if we not

be put in that position of having to decide

who comes and who stays...

and who can't come.

At first I thought he was really exaggerating

and that it couldn't be as bad as he was making it out to be.

And frankly,

I went through all of those stages.

I was angry. I was in denial.

And then I realized

once I started reading all of these things

that were being printed from the internet

and mainstream articles

that there really was a problem and it wasn't going to go away.

Ask these Y2K experts

how much of the problem is real and how much is hype?

Well, I think, um,

most of what you've heard so far is real.

"Worst scenario, radiation problems

make Three Mile Island look like a picnic."

"And likely to happen, some battlefield equipment

is junked rather than fixed."

Yeah, but, I mean, the overall impression...

"High-tech systems get more attacks..."

We didn't say the worst scenario.

The worst scenario

is what the consultants are saying.

Joining us from Toronto,

computer consultant Peter de Jager.

Paloma O'Reilly is a computer expert.

Some experts say airplanes may fall from the sky,

the world financial system could melt down.

Mm, I might pull out some money

just in case the computers go down.

I mean, you know.

A lot of people saying there's gonna be nothing

that's gonna be wrong. There's a lot of people saying

there's gonna be something wrong.

Well, I won't be flying anytime,

beginning of January or February.

So I'll make sure I don't.

- I wanna make... - Why?

Because I'm afraid.

I just hope that... that...

all the nuclear stockpiles are under control.

According to a TIME/CNN poll,

the level of concern about Y2K,

somewhat/very concerned, 59 percent.

Americans willing to move to a rural area,

like you Scott, 12 percent.

So you're mainstream, for once in your life, Scott.

Hey, I'm not so far out as I thought.

There's so much information clutter on this whole topic.

And it does scare people.

"In the garage, you can't get your car started

because its front panel detects

that the car hasn't been serviced

in almost a century."

I mean, that's pretty specific. Where did that come from?

Well, that came from de Jager actually.

Mr. Jager, good evening, welcome to Crossfire.

Can I ask you a personal question first?

- Sure. - I just have to notice this.

I mean...

is this a doomsday tie

- that you're wearing? - No. It's actually

just a sense of humor.

I mean, if you can't laugh at this,

then we may as well all just slit our wrists.

Well, I mean, you're like a walking billboard

for Doomsday.

Peter, let me ask you this.

I mean, is... Let's be real honest here. Okay?

I mean, I've looked a little bit into you

and you got this book out. I mean, you got a website

where you're selling everything from videotapes

for 75 bucks to watches, to...

Maybe even to ties, I don't know,

to handbooks dealing with this.

I mean, you're a one-man gloom and doom industry.

You don't want this problem to go away

'cause you'd be out of a job.

On the contrary, and I rej... I really resent that.

This has to be solved.

What we want is for it to solve.

What we want is for people to take this thing seriously.

What we want is on January 1st

for you to get me back on the show and say,

"Peter nothing happened," and my job will be done

and the jobs of several hundred other people.

The reality is that the IRS, for example,

is spending a billion dollars.

Why are they spending that money?

Because I'm a good speaker. Come on! Give them some credit.

Well, I mean, I've read that you get 7,500 dollars for a speech,

- that's more than... - How much do you get?

- Don't give me that. - Novak and Buchanan.

But look at this. Here's this page,

half a page ad that you yourself

- took out promoting... - No, no, no.

Your own self in The Wall Street Journal.

It's got your website here and everything.

Please. Let's not...

You're selling yourself as Dr. Doom aren't you?

Let's get the facts right.

Let's not do another sarin on air.

- This was paid for by... - Touché.

This was paid for by The Wall Street Journal.

- This is not an ad I took out. - But... But...

They... And they gave me a byline.

All your information is up here right?

- Absolutely! - But aren't you making a living

- by scaring people to death? - Yes!

I'm making a living by telling them the truth.

Now if the truth scares them,

- please don't shoot the messenger. - All right.

Is this your outfit for Y2K?

It sure is. I'm Farmer Jane now.

How you doing?

Got any eggs for me today? Let's see.

I felt like when my congressman laughed at my inquiries,

and the mayors

and the local media wouldn't report it seriously,

that it was pretty hopeless.

Because Peter de Jager said

that if you didn't get going in '89,

it was gonna be hopeless.

And so, uh...

I put my business up for sale.

So, it's not going to be easy for us financially

if Year 2K doesn't happen

because we have sold off our assets.

But it's much more important for us to have this cash now

and put it in our Year 2K preparations.

In a year from now,

I anticipate the home will be full of the smell

of fresh bread and the wood stove.

We'll have some sewing to be doing,

um, fresh eggs, the animals to feed,

and it'll be time to just really connect,

brush up on my piano skills.

Do you think of yourself

as a Y2K survivalist or...

- In terms of Y2K? - Well, I'm...

I'm a grandma turned Year 2K-er

and when I couldn't get my local community to listen,

I found that there was thousands of people on the internet

that wanted information about rural living.

And so I set up a website

and we've had thousands that have visited it,

and we're just trying to encourage people here

that rural living can be fun and you can make the adjustment.

You can use it with either hot water,

you can fix it with cold water,

or if you had to, you can even eat it raw.

Now I don't recommend eating it raw.

I mean, it'll... it'll swell up.

You can make anything solar,

any flashlights, any radio you have,

you can make it with a solar battery charger.

- You can make anything solar. - I see.

Um... Okay.

- Why don't I go ahead with that. - Okay.

There's a lot more books being written,

a lot more on the internet.

And I think that there is a potential problem

that might occur, and no one knows,

but I'd rather be prepared for my family

and if there isn't a problem then we're set.

You know, and that's just less shopping

I'll have to do next year.

In the past, these shows drew survivalists

who were here for political or religious views

about their survival.

Now you're seeing a whole new group

of people come out.

All that Crisco makes my chicken taste oh, so good.

Here, would anybody like a great big old lick?

Nobody would.

It's not so much the computers failing,

it's that I'm worried about what the people are gonna panic

before the year.

I think we're going to be the problem.

It not only brings your knife out

in an open position,

but also you can present your blade closed.

This is the sheet that you need to go by very carefully

to keep from being set up entrapped, et cetera.

So many people already have been in America.

Please welcome the godfather

of the militia movement, Mr. John Trochmann.

Trochmann is appearing at what is called

a preparedness expo.

It's on our videotape over there too.

Distrust of the government

has increased considerably, says Trochmann.

The bombs of Oklahoma went off.

For the next three months after that, we doubled in size.

Good morning. Militia of Montana.

From this tiny office, John Trochmann

says he and his followers are leading a revolution.

They're now arming themselves against the federal government.

I don't think they leave us a choice

if they continue on like this.

They're the ones that will bring war to us.

We will never bring war to them, they will bring it to us.

Promoting that kind of paranoia,

conspiracy theory, vigilantism,

take things into your own hands by force.

While the leaders of it might be very sincere

in believing that they will never be the ones

to pull the trigger and shoot somebody.

They nonetheless fuel the fires and create a climate

in which some of their followers well might.

Some militia groups now worry

that the US government, aided by foreign countries,

could use the computer collapse as an excuse to grab more power.

Greetings folks. In the spring of 1997,

we produced a video production called

America's Judgments, What Lies Ahead.

We were aware of Y2K, but at the time,

we did not take it serious enough

to put it in our video.

Not until we did our own investigation

did we realize how serious it actually could be.

Don't take my word for it.

Let us share with you the documentation

that we have here.

And you can make up your own minds.

On December 3rd, 1998. John Koskinen,

which is the Y2K guru for President Clinton, said,

"In a crisis and emergency situation,

the free market may not

be the best way to distribute resources."

"If there is a point in time where we have to take resources

and make a judgment on an emergency basis,

we will be prepared to do that."

So folks, now that we perceive there may be a problem with Y2K

and their dirty little tricks,

what do you think the government is doing about it?

Perhaps we ought to have a look.

We have increasing confidence

that the basic infrastructure in the United States will hold.

The grid will hold.

I think major telecommunication systems will hold.

We're increasingly confident

that the basic infrastructure will hold.

There's no evidence that we're gonna have

a national catastrophe.

Mission critical systems

of the federal government are gonna work.

So we're in pretty good shape.

I guess I'll start off with the criticism

from the Y2K community,

maybe because you represent the government.

But the criticism has been

that you've been overly optimistic

about your assessments.

I think what you have to do is take with a grain of salt,

uh, those people who are concerned about

whether we were over optimistic or under optimistic.

The ultimate rumor I would like to dispel

is that somehow we have information

in the federal government or in the President's Council

that we're not sharing with the public.

And there is no evidence,

nobody's ever been able to establish

something we know that we haven't told.

And in fact, our strategy, for now going on to two years,

has been to share with the public

everything we have as we get it.

So the... As I said, I think the rumor

that there's this secret information

that we're somehow afraid to release

is just that, a rumor.

Do you think that on the other side,

that there are areas or people

that are actually contributing to panic?

Well, there are clearly those from the start,

over the last three to four years,

who have, for one reason or another,

been predicting the end of the world as we know it.

Surf through the internet these days

and you keep coming across a strange new word, TEOTWAWKI.

The word stands for

"The End Of The World As We Know It."

For a growing number of people, the year 2000 is not a milestone

as much as it is a sign of some sort of impending chaos.

We're reaching a climax

where things have become so evil

and the world has become in such a state

that it's ushering in the entrance of Christ.

The last time this happened 1,000 years ago, the year 1000.

Man, there were end of the world cults

and all sorts of doomsday stuff

and people were going around

hitting themselves with whips and stuff.

Do you think that's gonna happen this year?

I hope not.

I don't feel like the exact year 2000

is the year all hell breaks loose.

But I just feel like in every holy scripture,

it has been predicted that this time

would be a significant time. You know what I'm saying?

The concept of the millennium is a Christian concept.

People in general have a sense that the world

isn't the way they'd want the world to be.

An event which focuses that energy

takes out a magnifying glass and puts it above the tinderbox.

The ten hours that my son stays

in front of the computer,

it's almost become an idol. So it's maybe only just

that this idol comes crashing down.

The question I ask myself is this...

"Could this be God's way to bring revival to America?"

Now all of this should come as no surprise

considering a recent Newsweek poll

saying 40 percent of Americans

believe the world will end as Revelation describes.

I have the feeling that something terrible

is going to happen.

"The end of the world."

"A guide to millennium madness."

How much of this is that the fear of Y2K

may now be bigger than Y2K?

It's not just that.

It's that there are now two camps.

There are the people like myself who are saying

we have a technical problem, let's deal with it.

And then quite frankly,

there are people in the far right

on the fringe elements of the religious area,

who are deliberately predicting the very, very worst.

The message is getting mixed, and that both dilutes my message

- and amplifies this stuff. - Yes, this kind of...

And this is one of the reasons

why the far right

have seized upon year 2000, because it is a problem.

And they can point to the newspaper

every single day and say, "See, I told you.

- I told you." - Yeah.

And that's what's getting people

who don't understand technology very, very frightened.

Hello, friends,

we are going to be discussing one of the most serious topics

that we have ever attempted to bring to you.

Jack, in fact, you've been so burdened...

about this huge problem,

that this is an emergency video that we're making, actually.

After studying 250 to 300 major reports

from experts globally,

I can honestly say I'm shocked, startled, and stunned.

If these men are right,

this whole world is going to rock and roll,

it's going to reel to and fro.

What am I to do about this?

Well, God says my job is to warn you.

Let's narrow it right down there, Jack.

How's the Y2K problem connected with the Lord's return?

Satan, who's the God of this world,

2nd Corinthians 4:4, is in control

of heavens one and two.

"He is the prince of the power of the air."

Of the airwaves.

Yes, the electricity and the currents.

Well, you know, certainly Satan could take advantage

of such a situation because he wants man's confusion

just prior to the return of the Lord.

I am literally amazed at the accuracy of this book.

Listen to this. "The passages are stopped

and the men of war are frightened."

What?

The passages, the means of communication, computers...

are stopped.

It's so near.

Are you ready?

It's the night on everyone's mind.

This could affect half the continental United States.

Three, two...

The night they warned us about.

Now we're starting to see some problems.

Happy New Year!

What if they're right?

My God.

We have to start the evacuation.

The survival of millions

hangs in the balance.

- We've lost this puppy. - Go! Everybody out!

Just tell yourself it's only a movie.

And now, Y2K: The Movie.

Our age of anxiety is truly the millennial age.

All the dread about AIDS,

nuclear weapons, ecological disasters,

point to a fear of an apocalyptic future.

And at the same time, the dream of ending disease,

of genetically altering crops to grow in the desert,

of populating other planets,

all point to a hope for a perfect future.

That's what the Millennium Myth is all about.

That the human journey is one with a goal,

an ultimate end of some sorts, a climax.

And tonight we're going to examine that myth

and how it's playing out in our high-tech culture.

I think popular culture, you know television, films,

I think it is interesting to look at those

and see what shape they take on at particular times.

It's never arbitrary.

The world as it was at the end of the 20th century.

It exists now only as part of a neural interactive simulation

that we call the Matrix.

This kind of anxiety

is not restricted to the fringes,

not restricted to Christians.

What in the hell is that?

It's everywhere.

The culture comes under the influence

of this force of expectation.

And it's now focused, intensified

by reaching this deadline.

Time's up.

Now, I got a story for you. A few years ago,

when all was quiet throughout the countryside,

everyone had the general knowledge

that the turn of the century was at hand, the year 2000.

You like this, don't you? The year 2000

would soon be upon us, who would have thought?

And who would've thought that our next guest

would come to the forefront.

We welcome Peter de Jager.

Tonight, he is not gonna try to scare us.

Thank you so much for coming down.

- You're welcome. - Tell me this,

how do you put yourself in a situation where at first

you were one of the ones saying

- watch out for Y2K, and then... - Absolutely.

If I understand you correctly,

now you're saying to everyone,

"Don't panic, calm down. It's not gonna be that bad."

- What's the difference? - In the beginning,

when we started to speak about this,

myself and many others,

there had been very little work done,

and very little attention or respect paid to this problem.

So there was a huge risk that if we didn't fix it,

there would be consequences.

Today, you know, five, six, seven years later down the line,

the banks and the insurance companies,

governments and power companies have all done

a tremendous amount of work, you know,

hundreds of billions of dollars have been spent

on this problem worldwide.

And we have averted many of the scenarios,

the disaster scenarios that we first came up with,

that we used to convince people that they should pay attention.

They have paid attention.

That's a sound that gets your attention real quick.

Well, the end of the year is bringing a big increase in,

of all things, gun sales.

And it's apparently being sparked at least in part

by fear that the coming of the new year

will bring a new wave of violence.

Y2K gun buyers say they're afraid of everything

from terrorism to 911 failures.

I just wanted to be prepared in case,

you know, anything happens for Y2K

just to have an ounce of prevention, you know?

Sharon is not alone.

Mandatory gun background checks this month

are up 20 percent from last December

and last Thursday set the record.

Sixty-seven thousand checks in one day.

News organizations in this country,

including this one, are trying to avoid

causing any kind of panic with reports about terrorism

and the coming new year.

Tonight fear avoidance is getting rather difficult.

I'm concerned about the terrorism.

I don't have any intention to leave my house.

The principal concern,

Osama bin Laden.

A flurry of activity by his followers

leads experts to believe he is planning another attack.

The threat of homegrown terrorism

suddenly became clear

with the arrest of two men linked

to anti-government militias near Sacramento.

In New York City, officials scoffed at the idea

of canceling New Year's Eve in Times Square.

We are literally doing everything we possibly can

to make it as safe as we can make it.

We're coming here a little bit early

to kind of be a part of it

even though we're not coming in on New Year's Eve.

- You're not coming to Times Square? - Nah.

I'm not coming to Times Square,

I'm just gonna watch it from television at home.

- I'm exhausted. - Mm-hmm.

I don't wanna hear another thing about Y2K.

What are we doing on New Year's Eve?

We'll be hiding somewhere.

In case the world ends or something.

- You know? - But we're very optimistic.

In case everything just goes...

These computer programmers

have been hired to double check line after line

of computer code.

Clients are still sending us code

to be inspected for Y2K

and we are definitely still finding errors.

Tonight, by one estimate,

seventy percent of Americans buying emergency supplies

to welcome the new year.

Basically, they don't know what to expect.

Planes will fall out of the sky

and all the world's nuclear weapons will explode,

annihilating the entire planet.

No!

We're more concerned with people problems

as opposed to technology failures

on New Year's Eve.

They're hiring more police officers

because they think there might be some riots.

Well, I hope those police officers don't,

you know, encourage the violence.

Oh, my, yes!

You bastard! That's better.

First thing that's gonna happen when the electric goes off,

people are gonna panic, because fear's gonna set in.

First the lights will go out in Asia.

And as the time slips by here in the Midwest,

we'll see the lights go out in New York City.

At the end of every major piece of time,

it's a paranoid and pathological time.

Lots of weird stuff happens all over the world.

We're turning over another 1,000 years,

it's not like we're turning over a year, ten years, 100 years.

We're talking another 1,000. We're talking the 21st century.

So it's, I mean...

I think more than anything, you gotta celebrate it.

And as long as you have a lot of people out there,

you can expect anything and everything to happen.

- Where you going? - Home.

Did you have any idea about this?

- No. What is it? - What is it?

It's a concert, uh, for the millennium,

- a group called Fish. - Oh, jeez.

Good morning and welcome

to the very edge of the 21st century.

Good morning, you hearty souls, I should say.

It's a little before 5:00 a.m. here in Times Square.

And for the next 24 hours, we're going to try to share

this extraordinary occasion

with much of the rest of the world.

So let us now go and have a look at Kiribati in the Pacific,

the closest island, this morning,

to the International Date Line,

the first celebration of the millennium.

We're covering breaking news this morning.

We're getting word out of Russia, out of Moscow,

that there is a big change in store

for the Russian leadership.

We go now to CNN's Eileen O'Connor,

who's standing by in Moscow with the very latest on this.

Eileen.

Well, right now, Boris Yeltsin has just announced

that he is going to cede

the reins of power to the presidency

to his prime minister, Vladimir Putin,

effective, he says, immediately.

Now, this does come as a surprise,

but Vladimir Putin is a very popular prime minister,

he is known as a person who wants a strong Russia.

He took great pains, by the way, Leon,

to say that that does not mean an overbearing, imperial Russia.

It means a stable Russia.

CNN's Eileen O'Connor reporting live

from Moscow. Colleen.

It is 18 hours

before the new year in New York City.

Carol, what's going on in the heart of the Big Apple

right now?

Colleen, what is about to happen

is that they're gonna light up the new crystal ball

and it will begin its ascension up a 77-foot flagpole at the top

of the One Times Square building.

There it goes,

this magnificent Waterford Crystal Ball.

They've pulled the switch.

They've lighted it up.

An elaborate hardware and software system

descending into this square which is...

in itself all about electronic hardware now,

selling products all over the world.

You're looking at a live picture

of Auckland, New Zealand,

where the year 2000 is just about a minute away.

Now, New Zealand is one of the first big tests

of the possible effects of the Y2K computer bug,

officials in the US

are watching New Zealand very closely.

Let there be light.

And there is light behind us. The electricity is A-okay.

Inside the government's command center,

computer experts report a stable situation so far,

with no Y2K glitches,

starting with the US territory of Guam.

A plane landed and a baby was born,

so that business continues as normal.

Across Japan, a million office workers

sat at their desks

and nervously watched their computers

as midnight came and went.

There were minor problems at two nuclear power plants.

Officials are probing for any Y2K bugs.

Neither plant's operation was affected.

I am standing at ground zero,

in case of any accidental nuclear missile launch.

And just a few miles from here,

Russian military officers are sitting side by side

with American military officers,

working to fight a common enemy, the Y2K menace.

While we are encouraged

by the positive reports thus far, uh,

we should all remember

that we have many miles to go before we sleep.

For the time being, no news is good news.

So far, so good.

So far, so good on the Y2K Watch.

Good news all around so far in terms of that Y2K bug.

So far, so good.

You're looking live, once again as the crowds

who gathered in Times Square

could reach two million people before midnight tonight.

Obviously, they're not worried about terrorism

or Y2K computer bugs.

The excitement among the crowd is palpable.

This crowd has been shouting, "Three, two, one,"

it seems every hour...

as the millennium has been breaking

all across the planet.

You'd think that by now

these people would be tuckered out,

but in fact, it seems the excitement is growing.

A lot of very happy people right now.

Amazingly, a very small percentage

of these people are New Yorkers.

These people are from all over the world.

These folks, California, Washington, what other states?

Florida, Oklahoma. Unbelievable turnout.

You having a good time?

Oh! I'm lovin' it. I am lovin' it.

The big moment is just a few hours away

from us here in the United States.

And while the rest of New York is partying, maybe all...

They're all tourists out in Times Square tonight,

the rest of Silicon Alley and Wall Street and whatever,

the computer experts

will all be there at their terminals.

Liz in Escondido, California.

- Hi, Liz. - Hi.

Um, I'd just like to observe that initially,

the Y2K kind of started off as this global fear,

maybe subconscious fear, of technology, kind of like,

you know, Frankenstein had at the rise of industrialism.

But what I see it turning into is kind of just an awareness

of how connected everyone is globally.

And if you're tuned into the TVs at all,

I mean, we're watching the celebrations, you know,

roll over each time zone

and it's really more, uh, kind of a global

love-in or something.

You think this is a unifying experience

- versus a divisive one? - Yeah. Yeah.

Because, uh, I...

We're all now more aware of how connected we are.

This crowd size, as we can see

from the tenth floor

of the Marriott Marquis hotel here, is big.

Interestingly enough, you at home

probably are in the majority this year

because they ran a poll recently

and Americans staying home this year are 72 percent.

Freakin' New Year, dude!

- Freakin' New Year! - Yeah.

Are you taking a photograph or a video?

It does both.

- Is that digital? - Uh-huh.

Yeah. So it takes a picture. I can send it to you.

It's a video!

- Happy New Year! - Happy New Year!

I feel like part of the global village.

I feel connected to the rest of humanity.

I'm ready for the aliens to land.

What is your New Year's resolution?

I don't know!

My New Year's resolution is to collect all 100...

all the Pokémon cards

that they've ever came out with. Whoo!

My New Year's resolution would be to study more and...

be a better example

for the people that are around me.

I'm doing everything right, don't need to change anything,

just even keel.

Yeah, live life to its fullest, of course,

and to just take life for what it's worth,

a wonderful gift.

2000 is gonna be wonderful, I'm looking forward to it.

Um, there's nothing I want more right now

than for the entire world to explode.

Well, here it comes.

- Here it is. - MAN 2:11:51.

- Digital bug. - Here it is.

- Cheers. - Happy millennium!

Cheers!

Especially at the end of the century,

it's always good to take stock.

We split the atom, invented jazz and rock,

launched airplanes and landed on the moon,

concocted a general theory of relativity,

devised the transistor,

and figured out how to etch millions of them

on tiny microchips.

We discovered penicillin and the structure of DNA,

defeated fascism and communism, developed cinema and television,

built fantastic highways, and wired the world.

We ponder these things in joy,

but also in prayerful humility.

As we now move into the challenge

and the danger of a new unknown.

The dawn of the 21st century.

Okay, now everyone sit like this...

and wait for the lights to go out.

I know, this is shit...

What if everything just went out right now?

Here we go.

You were wise to stay at home. In one minute,

the ball will drop and you will see pandemonium.

The ball is beginning to move. They can feel it.

Happy New Year!

Well, you gotta watch the show.

I think they're gonna do something.

Hi!

The lights are gonna go on, everybody's gonna go crazy.

Behind the clock.

Ten seconds.

Nine, eight, seven, six, five,

four, three, two, one.

Happy 2000!

It's the biggest thrill of my life

and I made so many new friends to carry on the next millennium.

It's awesome!

- In this crowd? - Oh, yeah.

The people are so nice.

There's such good energy about this crowd.

Nothing bad at all.

We didn't fall asleep.

They're a good crowd, best crowd yet.

This is disgusting.

Oh, Louise!

Happy New Year!

The lights are on, Bill.

I know. Everything's still working.

Everything's still working!

All right, is that enough pictures of the cake, you guys?

B-roll of the cake, right? That's right.

What do you hope for the New Year?

Peace in the world. Peace. Yeah, that's all.

- Wave to the camera. - Say, "Happy New Year."

Wave! Happy New Year.

Wave, Carol.

They're tired. Oh, thank you.

Happy New Year's to everybody.

This is a very new time for us.

We were confronted by these interdependent systems

we had created and realized that we are dependent on people

we don't even know.

And that's the great lesson from Y2K.

That no one can go through any

of the current dilemmas facing us alone.

The news.

Nothing happens.

Well, we made it.

The dire predictions of the last several months

dissolved in a potent mix of joy and celebration

all around the globe last night,

and that dreaded bug didn't bite.

We feel that we have come to a new planet,

uh, to a new planet

where there's peace, and there's no confusion.

Some people are questioning now whether

all of this was overkill.

What do you have to say about that?

I say that no one who worked on this problem thinks that.

They all understand, after several years of work

and spending hundreds of millions of dollars,

that we averted a major disaster

by successfully attacking the problem.

You said today that this may be your last briefing.

Are things going that well?

Things are actually going very well.

And we're delighted with the progress

that's been made.

It now appears very clear that the United States

and most of the world, in fact, all of world at this time

have made a successful transition

into the 21st century.

So now that Y2K and other anxieties

have subsided,

the time has come when at least some Americans

will actually start to sit up and take notice of the fact

that there's a presidential campaign going on

and the first big contest is coming up fast.

The man who warned us about Y2K

says it's a lesson about

how much we depend on technology,

and how it's not as infallible as we'd like to think.

I don't believe that we as a human race,

learn from our mistakes. We don't learn from history.

Every 100 years,

we'll have exactly the same type of situation.

And it'll be someone else raising the alarm.

That people all over the planet could experience the same events

at the same time,

would have been impossible for anyone

to imagine 1,000 years ago, even 100.

Yet the growing interconnectedness

of the world today, thanks to a global economy

and technologies like the internet,

is more than just a mark of how far we've come,

it's the key to understanding where we're going.

When you talk about the millennium,

you sure mean something different than most of us.

Well, a millennium is such a small slice of time

in the spectrum of the universe.

- - NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON: We've got the big bang

happening 13 billion years ago,

you know, what's 1,000 years between friends?

The timeline that we create

is about the length of a football field.

The thickness of hair,

on the sheet that you're holding up,

represents all of cultural history

of human beings on Earth.

Instead of the world ending,

it's going to kind of begin all over again,

but not literally.

Not like another big bang or whatever caused the universe.

But like...

I think it's gonna be like a fresh start for everybody

to try and get along.

We're gonna start to dive into the...

to dive into the world of technology and...

try to survive there.

If we keep digging and using all this oil,

plastic, et cetera, et cetera,

I mean, how far are these supplies gonna go?

You can't assure that they'll be here forever.

Think of us...

as a midpoint...

between no tolerance...

and between very...

loving everyone.

This hasn't been a great century.

Fix the world, don't screw it up.