Text COM:1701560 (45 lines)

From: Kaunteya (das) JPS (Mayapur - IN)

Date: 19-Sep-98 08:04

To: Apocalypse 1999? (Are you ready?) [23]

Subject: "Apocalypse 1999?" conference on CHAKRA web page

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The CHAKRA web page (http://www.chakra.org) is an ISKCON friendly site that

receives about 4000 visitors a day.

HH Vipramukhya Maharaja, whom I sincerely thank, wrote a report entitled

"New Com Conf Warns of Disaster in Year 2000". The article is an account of

what we shared on this conference so far.

I consider the presentation fair and balanced, especially because

Maharaja--at the moment--doesn't take the Y2K threat very seriously.

He wrote me:

> I suspect at worst there may be a brownout for a few hours on that day.

He refers to 1st January 2000.

Raktambara Prabhu, our beloved COM system operator, thinks differently:

> I'm sure no computer programmer can predict what the global effect will

> be, since programmers can only explain to you what the bug is and how it

> can be fixed, but they do not know on which pillars the economy rests and

> how this bug will affect them or not. However, from experience as a

> programmer I can tell that little bugs can sometimes have very weird or

> drastic effects beyond expectation.

>

> Personally, I think it will be very bad, and we should be prepared for the

> worst.

>

> Considering that the whole economy can collapse because of this little

> silly bug is so ironic that it can only be Krsna's plan (Krsna has a good

> sense of humor after all).

>

> It is simply too late for most government organizations and big

> multinationals to act on it, since time cannot be paused and there are not

> enough mainframe programmers available to check all program source code.

> Even if now everyone starts working like mad to fix the bug, the bug

> cannot be fixed in all systems before Jan 1, 2000. And most people (I mean

> leaders, managers) still do not understand the need to fix it (since it

> costs tons of money, a very sensitive point).

>

> It is like Krsna saying, "All these men are already killed." It is just a

> matter of time to manifest, but it is unavoidable and therefore as good as

> happened already.

your servant, Kaunteya das

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