As the millennium approaches, people have different ideas about what will happen in the 21st century. Some think the Messiah, the coming of Christ, and Judgement day, when all lawyers will get their dues and Bill Gates will surely go to hell. Others think world peace. Still others think cures for every disease and ailment found in the solar system. Me? I doubt we'll make it past the year 2000.

Surely everybody has heard about the Y2K (symbol for year 2000) problem by now. You know, the glitch in the computer systems of every outdated computer in the whole world? In the year 2000, most computers will revert back to 1900 because early programmers failed to add two more digits to the programs (for example, 1993= 93, so the sequence follows: 93,94,95,96,97,98,99 loops 00.) This will cause malfunctions in numerous systems because valuable information will be deleted or mixed up. The Y2K bug has been the subject of many sites on the Web and many heated debates.

Ok, so what if computers break down? Without computers, many an English teacher rejoices over the prospect of a more efficient way to check for spelling and grammar. Mothers revel over getting their Internet addicted kids off the computer. Well, without computers, many luxuries we take for granted do not work. For example, electricity, heat and light (wait a minute, those are necessities), which in turn shuts down refrigerators, toilets, microwaves, garages, stoves, security systems, TVs etc… I could go on forever. While Social Security has been tested and corrected for this bug, the IRS has yet to reach a solution. Banks are one of the most vulnerable to this problem, and everyone will lose their money. The stock market will crash while people rush to rescue their savings. And when the stock market crashes, you know what that means… hundreds of corpses will litter Wall Street as they commit suicide. Computer controlled factories will shut down, and manufacturing will come to a halt, which means no food, textiles, etc etc etc. Jailbreaks will occur every day, with crazed madmen roaming the streets. Desperate people will wander through all the cities and towns ransacking others' homes. We'll probably have martial law. Thousands will starve to death. Natural disasters will have higher death counts because we won't be prepared. What if a computer controlled nuclear missile accidentally hits us because of the glitch? Then we have full-blown nuclear war, which of course, leads to the death of our planet. And us.

How serious is this problem? While new computers are being made to prevent this catastrophe, not enough people use new computers in the world's population to make a significant difference. We can't look to the past for help because this has never happened before. Doomsayers and the financially savvy like Alan Greenspan, Chairman of the Federal Reserve have already started preparing for this event by extracting all their money from banks which will inevitably fail in the year 2000. Come December 31st, 1999, most people will be partying like it's, well, 1999, but some will be holed up in their bomb shelters and closets and such, waiting for the world to end.

Call me paranoid, call me crazy, call me anything you want; we'll see what happens January 1st, 2000. I'm a person who hates to be wrong, but this is one situation where I would like more than anything to be wrong about. Who knows? Maybe it won't happen. And after this disastrous event? Of course! Colonial America (think George Washington) all over again, as people are more determined than ever to stop their dependence on computers. Ladies, back to your knitting needles. And men, start chopping firewood.

"I doubt we'll make it past the year 2000..."

" The stock market will crash while people rush to rescue their savings..."

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