If you're the average Utahn, you have not planned an extra trip to the bank to stock up on cash or rented a trailer to haul home all the food you plan to buy at the grocery store before the year ends.
Our officials have told us we're "Y2K ready," and for the most part we believe them. Besides that, we have a short attention span, and we're already burned out on Y2K stories, although the real story hasn't even been written yet.Our utilities, from electric power to gas to phone service to water, have been checked, double-checked and then re-checked, state Y2K experts say. And as long as those aren't affected adversely, we can probably survive almost anything the Y2K computer bug might bring.
That bug, in case you've been living in an underground bomb shelter somewhere far, far from civilization, was created when space-conscious computer designers opted to use two digits to designate years, instead of the full four. The fear is that when the clock turns over on the new year, computers around the globe will read the date as 1900 instead of 2000, creating a ton of problems. To counter its potential negative effects, we've spent thousands of hours as a nation updating computer systems -- and billions of dollars, to boot.
Even those who believe the arrival of the new year will be, from a technology standpoint, a nonevent suggest that it's wise to have a few basic emergency supplies on hand, including food, water and a print-out copy of important financial records. Again as a precaution, a lot of people are planning to stay close to home. After all, Utah's own Sen. Bob Bennett said he wouldn't want to be in an airplane when Y2K kicks in. (By the way, experts have since certified air travel as safe.)
What no one is talking about is the potential Y2K has to show up who we are as members of the global community. And that potential is, indeed, great.
Will we be hoarders or sharers? Good neighbors or bad?
The truth is, no matter how well prepared we prove to be when the date turns from 99 to 00, there will be problems around the world, and some of them will impact us. As 2000 unfolds, we'll have an opportunity to be part of the solution or not, depending on how our leaders choose to participate.
With more than 1.2 trillion lines of software code that had to be updated, not to mention the 25 billion microchips that have to properly read the new code (and let's hope no one made a devastating typo or, heaven forbid, deliberately inserted errors in the code), the probability that some country somewhere will stumble is extremely high.
A great deal is already known about which systems are particularly susceptible to failure. In Egypt, for example, the public sector is 97 percent Y2K compliant, but experts predict that the health-care industry will experience glitches.
It's even more ominous in Indonesia, where electrical power, nuclear facilities, health care and communications are being red-flagged.
And Russia's probably going to be in real trouble. Fewer than half of the computers have been fixed, and experts predict that disruptions will occur for months. In fact, a number of Russian officers will spend New Year's at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado so that they can reassure Russia if there are false missile warnings.
That's a lovely scenario, since false warnings could prompt Russia to fire a few missiles in retaliation of a perceived attack. And those missiles would certainly not be directed back at Russia herself, which points out why helping other countries overcome their computer errors is not only wise but mandatory for each country's very survival.
In the United States, we've been told that all 103 nuclear plants are in great shape to greet the dawn of a new year. But the commercial information service Graphic News warns that state and local governments, social welfare programs and small businesses are vulnerable. Which in turn makes other things vulnerable.
We're interconnected, to be sure. Anything that fails will weaken something else somewhere else.
Some countries are erring on the side of caution. Israel, for example, plans to shut down its nuclear plant, while Holland will ground its airline fleet. Taiwan's going to prevent a run on its banks by closing down all of its automated teller machines. The list goes on.
Eventually, though, those computers will be brought back online. So problems that exist will have to be fixed to prevent disasters.
That's where we come in. If we're as ready as we say we are, and only time will tell that, we need to be geared up to help those countries that are not. We should already have been doing it.
A global world leaves us with no choice.
Deseret News staff writer Lois M. Collins may be reached by e-mail at lois@desnews.com