Y2K...a historical 'perspective'... When we were in Europe a few years ago, while digging through some ruins, I came across a letter that I didn't think was particularly interesting at the time. While I paged thorough some of my souvenirs, I realized that it might have more significance today than I originally thought. Tell me what you think.
Here's the exact wording of the letter:
Rome
January 6, 1 BC
Dear Cassius,
Are you still working on the Y Zero K problem? This change from BC to
AD is giving us a lot of headaches, and we haven't much time left. I
don't know how people will cope with working the wrong way around.
Having been working happily downwards forever, now we have to start
thinking upwards. You would think that someone would have thought of it
earlier and not left it to us to sort out at the last minute.
I spoke to Caesar the other evening. He was livid that Julius hadn't
done something about it when he was sorting out the calendar. He said
he could see why Brutus turned nasty. We called in the consulting
astrologers, but they simply said that counting downwards using minus BC
won't work. As usual, the consultants charged a fortune for doing
nothing useful. As for myself, I just can't see the sand in an
hourglass flowing upwards.
We have heard that there are three wise guys in the east working on the
problem, but unfortunately they won't arrive till it's all over. Some
say the world will cease to exist at the moment of transition. Anyway,we are continuing to work on this blasted Y Zero K problem, and I willsend you a parchment if anything further develops.
Vale,
Plutonius
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