By KELLIE SWIATOCHA
It’s the bug many want to squash.
But Margaret Wheatley looks at Y2K as an opportunity. Wheatley, a PhD. from Harvard University and former BYU assistant professor, addressed students Thursday in a lecture sponsored by the Department of Communications.
Wheatley’s philosophy deals not with the bytes and bits of Y2K, but with the individual and society.
“Y2K is not a technical problem, but a social problem,” she said.
Wheatley said it’s a social problem because people have put Y2K in a box — a computer box. They have trapped it inside thinking it will not affect them. But Wheatley emphasized the only reason this world works is because of computers.
There are 30 to 50 billion microchips in the world. They control everything from security to elevators to the heating of a building. It’s been estimated that humans come in contact with 70 microprocessors before noon every day.
Wheatley described this scenario: each railway bed contains microchips. Trains deliver food to the stores and coal to the power plants. If those microchips aren’t Y2K compliant, then food would not get to the stores and there would be no coal for the power plants. Stores only resupply food every two to three days while power plants only have enough for two weeks. But no transportation equals no food or power.
There is a cycle of dependency within the world where everything is interconnected. One small chip could bring down the whole system, Wheatley said.
Wheatly pointed out that in 1991, long distance service went down. There were 30 million lines of codes in the phone systems. Just four lines caused the failure.
The future is unclear. No one knows what is going to happen when the year changes to 2000. Wheatley brought a message that people need to come together.
There is no individual survival, she said. Wheatley suggested building up a food storage to last at least two weeks — and to make sure there is enough food storage to support a neighbor, too.
“If your neighbor’s not prepared, you’re not prepared,” she said.
Wheatley fears many people have become apathetic to the situation, thinking it does not apply to them.
27-year-old Dan Peterson, a graduate communications major from Orem, said, “I admit I didn’t think that much about Y2K. I’m a little more open-minded with the issue now. It seems much more important.”
Wheatley stressed preparing and educating. She said not to listen to one person’s advice on Y2K, but to cultivate an understanding and become involved in getting ready for the end of the year. Wheatley suggested some Web sites for those interested in obtaining more information. Y2K.today.com and Cassandraproject.com are two Web sites that offer advice.
“You don’t have to know the future in order to prepare for it,” said Wheatley.
