JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
Next week, the world marks a major anniversary of a thing that wasn't.
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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Call now and get the ultimate Y2K survival kit from becalm.com.
SUMMERS: We're talking about the Y2K bug, the computer problem that, depending on who you asked 25 years ago, was going to either be easy to fix or the end of humanity.
ZACHARY LOEB: People remember the early hyperbolic warnings, and then people remember not much happening.
SUMMERS: That's Zachary Loeb. He's an assistant professor in the History Department at Purdue University.
LOEB: Broadly speaking, I'm interested in the end of the world. Or more specifically, I'm interested in the idea that humanity's romance with science and technology is going to inevitably lead to catastrophe.
SUMMERS: Loeb says to understand the roots of Y2K, you need to go back to the 1950s and '60s, when computer memory was very expensive.
LOEB: So the solution that got hit upon as a way to deal with this is that you would truncate your dates. You would take the century digits, and you'd slice them off.
SUMMERS: So 1999 becomes 99, and normally, that's fine. But when 2000 became 00...
LOEB: They wouldn't know how to process that information. And in some cases, nothing would happen. And then there are other situations where computers could encounter those strange dates and just completely shut down.
SUMMERS: Fast-forward to the 1990s, and...
LOEB: Suddenly, it's a matter of, oh, we are the ones who have to fix it.
SUMMERS: What are those warning bells sound like that we're hearing in the 1990s? What are people saying about this upcoming deadline? I mean, that's a matter of 10 years or less.
LOEB: 1993 kind of marks the point at which members of the IT community really, really start to wake up to this. A lot of this is in response to an article in Computer World which has the attention-grabbing title of "Doomsday 2000." And in focusing their attention to this issue, despite the fact that sometimes they're deploying some kind of apocalyptic terminology, there's also a clear sense that, like, they can fix the problem unless they do nothing.
SUMMERS: What about the governmental response and communication? What about the role there?
LOEB: So 1996 is the point where the attention of the government really, really focuses on this. Congress holds its first hearing related to Y2K. Eventually, President Clinton has his own, you know, initiative.
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BILL CLINTON: This is one of those days that I never thought would ever arrive - where Al Gore has to listen to me give a speech about computers.
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LOEB: They're very concerned about the doom and gloom that are the hallmarks of the way that Y2K is getting covered in so much of the press. And so what the government keeps trying to do is convey this message of, there is work to be done. That work is being done. Please do not panic.
SUMMERS: Can you talk a little bit about that societal response and the public paranoia that you're describing as you remember it and what you know from your research?
LOEB: One of the unfortunate problems when you're looking at the history of computing is that lots of people sitting in front of computers, working really hard to fix a large problem isn't the most exciting thing in the world. The end of the world, on the other hand, is really, really exciting.
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UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER #1: Shutdowns of telephone systems...
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER #2: ...Being controlled by computer chips.
LOEB: You get to have exciting headlines about doom and gloom.
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UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER #3: Nuclear bombs going off on their own could all plague the world on January 1.
LOEB: And if you're somebody who's trying to sell survival supplies...
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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: January 1, the year 2000.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: For whatever Y2K may bring, you need to understand...
LOEB: ...Telling people calamity is coming is a really great hook.
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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #4: ...Your ultimate Y2K survival kit. You get...
LOEB: In some ways, Y2K is the flipside of the technological utopianism of this period. The 1990s are a time when there's so much enthusiasm about the, quote-unquote, "information superhighway."
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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #5: ...The information superhighway - internet.
LOEB: And in this period, where there is so much excitement, there is so much enthusiasm, Y2K kind of functions as this perfect - but wait. What if it isn't going that well? I think this is another one of those moments where it's important to draw the line between what the popular imagination was prepared for and what the experts were actually saying. The Halloween episode of "The Simpsons" features a Y2K sequence that, amongst other things, has planes falling from the sky and household appliances going ballistic...
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YEARDLEY SMITH: (As Lisa Simpson) It's got a computer chip in it.
LOEB: ...All kinds of end-of-the-world stuff. And I think that so often, when people look back at Y2K, that's kind of the stuff they remember. But by the start of 1999, people in the IT community, the government officials who are really working on this - they are saying that Y2K is going to be no worse than a bump in the road. There were a lot of IT professionals who spent that night at their desks. And it meant that when things went wrong at their company, they were there to quickly respond to them.
SUMMERS: I wonder if there are any stories from the years leading up to Y2K that really stick with you.
LOEB: There is this tendency to remember so many of these groups and these people who were saying, you know, the sky is falling, and really focus on that. But one of the things that I have found really interesting looking back is looking at groups which were responding to the potential dangers of Y2K not by telling people, you need to go buy a shotgun and prepare for the end of the world, but all of these groups who were saying that the way we need to prepare for Y2K is by preparing to take care of each other. What we're going to need to do is have a food bank ready, to know our neighbors so that we can check in on them.
SUMMERS: Y2K's danger was averted because people identified a problem. They brought it to the attention of people in power, and people worked together to find solutions. This may be a little bit of a loaded question, but I'm curious. Do you think that if society was facing a similar threat today - that we'd be up to the task?
LOEB: (Laughter) So the great historian of technology Lewis Mumford once said, I'm a pessimist about probabilities. I'm an optimist about possibilities. And I think that's the approach that I would like to have here. I think that it is always possible that, in the face of major crises - that we can mount a sufficient response to them. I think that oftentimes in the face of serious crises, we fail to mount a sufficient response to them. And I think that one of the challenges with really mounting a sufficient response to a crisis is the situation of Y2K in that if you do what needs to be done, so often, people will then remember it as being a joke.
SUMMERS: Zachary Loeb is an assistant professor in the history department at Purdue University. Zachary, thanks so much and happy early new year.
LOEB: Happy early new year to you, and I hope that, as we all raise our glasses and toast the New Year - that the world doesn't end.
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