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Technology Stocks : Discuss Year 2000 Issues -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: John Mansfield who wrote (1347)	3/29/1998 11:18:00 AM
From: jwk	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 9818

>> But you need to keep in mind that when the great mass of society finally starts paying attention to Y2K, they're likely to "flip" overnight from denial to panic. << imvho, The real story here isn't about software, hardware, or embedded chips. It's about human nature. For the sake of discussion, let's say that at the very worst the reality of the doom and gloom turns out to be no more than a nagging case of techno flu on a world wide systemic basis. No big meltdowns. No big crashes. Nothing very dramatic at all. How well will individuals respond to nothing more than a nagging series of glitches which pop-up to disrupt the flow and relative certainty of their daily schedules? How well will people respond to an additional, constant, low-level stressor which unpredictably flares up from time to time? How many people make it through the day now by the graces of Prozac and other little helpers? How much more mood enhancement will be required to calm the nerves and ease aggressions? The Denver media has made a big deal of the rise in the Road Rage phenomenon which has increased greatly as the area's roads have become more crowded. Add more stressed drives and a possibly glitchy traffic control system to the equation. Fill it with cars taking folks to high rise office buildings whose environmental systems and transport systems may or may not be working smoothly on a given day. People will be coming from and going to homes which may or may not have basic utilities on a given day...... in the winter. The system doesn't have to totally crash for people to self-destruct under the weight of a new, nagging y2k stressor. If the reality of y2k turns out to be greater than a case of systemic infastructure flu, the odds of an increase in weird behavior increase significantly. I'd love to count on the grand and good in human nature rise to the occasion to deal with whatever problems and inconveniences we may actually face. Unfortunately, I think that's a sucker's bet. It's people's perceptions of and reactions to the disruptions caused by y2k glitches which I think are potentially far more serious than the particualr mechanics of the problem.