What ever happened to Y2K?

"Why does this applied science, which saves work and makes life easier, bring us so little happiness? The simple answer runs: Because we have not yet learned to make sensible use of it."

"Technological progress is like an axe in the hands of a pathological criminal."

- Albert Einstein


I’m sure we can all remember things that happened to us five years ago, well maybe not what we ate for dinner on December 16th but, the major events of the year should still be pretty fresh in our minds. This sounds like a logical request: Tell me one major thing from 1999…and no partying like it’s… is not a good answer. It’s funny how short the human memory can be. Just over five years ago the acronym Y2K was everywhere. It was going to be the end of the world as we know it and now…nothing.

I know that the Y2K bug or curse never happened, it was a complete bust. (Maybe that’s why we’ve brushed it under technology’s giant rug.) During the closing of 1999 people were in a panic, with technology and lack of foresight to blame. For one of the first times in my life technology as whole was being questioned by the masses. People were turning their backs to the once welcoming arms of the tech-world, giving a second thought to how much they were depending on technology in everyday life. Then a miracle occurred, nothing happened. There was no global shut down. So what did we do now that we were spared from the electronic meltdown? We got pissed on New Year’s, fought through our hangovers, hopped back on our tech-horses, and just kept on riding. We must have had way too much to drink that night, cause it seems we drank away all of our fears and concerns.

So here we are it’s 2005 and the furthest thing from our minds is worrying that we are depending too much on technology. We want it faster, smaller, and less to do with human contact than ever. Our faith in technology never failed, it may have wavered for a minute, but no way will we ever give it up. They say that hindsight is 20/20, but who’s looking back? We’ve constructed a lifestyle that depends so much on technology that our biggest concern we have with our new systems is the ‘human factor’ or human error.

“We’ve got the best traffic control system in the world, but we can’t count out human error…”
The big mistakes or problems we have with our systems is the humans running them or running inside them. This seems a bit odd to me. We build systems for humans, by humans, but we can’t trust the humans to operate them? We lack trust in our own intelligence to perform simple, menial tasks, however we trust the people who designed these complex systems? Don’t get me wrong, I’m the first to point out that there are a lot of idiots out there, but should we be taking away the need for skilled people? Should we constantly be replacing humans with machines? Sure we’ll train new people to run the machines, but what happens if the machines go down? I mean all of the machines…or let’s say we lose power. Now we’re left with a society filled with people that can type 150 words a minute, but no one who can build a typewriter. If we can’t trust humans, who or what are supposed to look to…monkeys?

I’m not predicting the apocalypse or even the death of your batteries on your palm pilot. In fact I love technology, I sometimes wish we had more. But when I sit back and think about it, it seems that technology’s kung-fu grip has got us tighter than ever. Think about your everyday life, how much do you do without using electronics, computers, or even a remote? Try to imagine what it would take to make it though your day without it…or how long it would take. It’s scary to think the amount of control that technology can have over us, and most of the time without our knowledge. I’m not saying technology is evil however, the greatest trick the devil ever pulled was to make the world think she didn’t exist.