Y2K IS NOT C21

Justin B Rye 25-Apr-97

Those who think the twenty-first century starts in the year two thousand simply have no idea which way their bread is buttered.  Never mind the fact that they just can't count; the reason I despise premature enumerators – such as the makers of Strange Days or last year's Doctor Who movie – is that they're trying to cheat us out of a party!

The 31-Dec-99 knees-up is a celebration of

• The year two thousand (Y2k), a celebratable event in its own right;
• The collapse of poorly maintained software worldwide;
• The end of the nineties; and, if you want to be Italian about it,
• The end of the novecento.

But then twelve months later we're due another big party for

• The end of the two-thousandth year A.D. (obviously), and therefore
• The end of the two-hundredth decade, and therefore
• The end of the twentieth century, and therefore
• The end of the second millennium.

What are the can't-count-won't-count crowd going to be doing that night?  Having a drab, run-of-the-mill hogmanay, whilst simultaneously pouring scorn on the numerate party-loving minority as a bunch of pedantic spoilsports?

Fortunately this (plus the debates over what to call the decade after the nineties, whether to say two thousand and twelve, two thousand twelve, or twenty-twelve, and indeed how to spell millennium!) is all academic, since we know the world is going to end on 23-Oct-97* – the world's six-thousandth birthday, according to Archbishop Ussher's calculations.  And if you believe that one, check out the page entitled Groovy… or if not, try my review of Heinlein's Y2k prophecies.

* October Postscript

Of course, you've got to allow a few weeks for the Gregorian/Julian conversion, the seven days of Genesis, British Summer Time, and, er, relativistic time-dilation.  Call it 31-Dec-97…