Thank you for an excellent article.
A parallel feels like it might be made to the Year 2000 bug. Those of us who were around (and sophonts) back then remember it pretty clearly, the various different ways in which the banks and other financial institutions, retailers everywhere, software developers, *everyone* was scrambling to ensure that the rollover from 99 to 00 didn't cause massive disruption across the board.
These days, in the cultural milieu, it's regarded as a bit of a joke, a potential explosion which turned out to be a fart. But that's because *the preparations worked.* People, seeing the world work the day after December 31, 1999, shrugged and smiled and figured it wasn't that big a deal after all, the systems managed to hold together.
And that was *entirely* the wrong lesson to learn. Come January 19, 2038, we're going to be having the exact sort of thing occur again, this time with the *UNIX Epoch*, and it's going to require even *more* effort and work to get over the edge of the hurdle.
Of course, it's not a perfect analogy by any stretch. Vaccination is a matter of making sure that the public are protecting one another, that we all take our part in signing the social contract seriously. Financial institutions and similar groups did work together to preserve the public interest, but more in service to themselves surviving another day. (Though that loops back around.)
In either case, though, what we need to see is that disaster is not optional: it's inevitable. Things *will* go wrong, and we rely upon one another to help minimize the harms, to limit the extent of the damage, and to rebuild afterwards. We can't kick that responsibility down the road, not truly, without increasing everyone's suffering a hundredfold, including quite probably our own. And externalizing the cost of survival is absolutely kicking the can down the road.
Howard Tayler expressed it more pithily in this Schlock Mercenary comic, though. https://www.schlockmercenary.com/2019-04-17
Jennifer Kayla | Theogrin 🦊
npub1u6…whqy6
2025-05-27 22:49:01 UTC
in reply to nevent1q…nj5n
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npub1u6gtpeqkr2ry5nnq0aeae2833rpmpn0vg8em75ufkaz7djj95kwqywhqy6Seen on
wss://relay.momostr.pinkPublished at
2025-05-27 22:49:01 UTCEvent JSON
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"content": "Thank you for an excellent article.\n\nA parallel feels like it might be made to the Year 2000 bug. Those of us who were around (and sophonts) back then remember it pretty clearly, the various different ways in which the banks and other financial institutions, retailers everywhere, software developers, *everyone* was scrambling to ensure that the rollover from 99 to 00 didn't cause massive disruption across the board.\n\nThese days, in the cultural milieu, it's regarded as a bit of a joke, a potential explosion which turned out to be a fart. But that's because *the preparations worked.* People, seeing the world work the day after December 31, 1999, shrugged and smiled and figured it wasn't that big a deal after all, the systems managed to hold together.\n\nAnd that was *entirely* the wrong lesson to learn. Come January 19, 2038, we're going to be having the exact sort of thing occur again, this time with the *UNIX Epoch*, and it's going to require even *more* effort and work to get over the edge of the hurdle.\n\nOf course, it's not a perfect analogy by any stretch. Vaccination is a matter of making sure that the public are protecting one another, that we all take our part in signing the social contract seriously. Financial institutions and similar groups did work together to preserve the public interest, but more in service to themselves surviving another day. (Though that loops back around.)\n\nIn either case, though, what we need to see is that disaster is not optional: it's inevitable. Things *will* go wrong, and we rely upon one another to help minimize the harms, to limit the extent of the damage, and to rebuild afterwards. We can't kick that responsibility down the road, not truly, without increasing everyone's suffering a hundredfold, including quite probably our own. And externalizing the cost of survival is absolutely kicking the can down the road.\n\nHoward Tayler expressed it more pithily in this Schlock Mercenary comic, though. https://www.schlockmercenary.com/2019-04-17",
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