The legacy of Y2K

NOBODY KNEW what would happen. Five years ago tonight the world awaited the arrival of the Y2K computer bug. For those who forget, the Y2K problem arose from a simple error in early computer coding. To save memory and money, computers and other electronic devices were programmed to process only the last two digits of a given year. The first two digits were assumed to be 1 and 9. Most Americans did not understand what, exactly, would happen to these devices when the year began with 2 0.

ADVERTISEMENT

What could go wrong? An alarming cover story in Time reported that "no one really knows how bad things will get until the witching hour arrives." NBC broadcast "Y2K: The Movie," a film in which computer bugs led to industrial anarchy and nuclear meltdown. The government warned us to stock up on batteries, canned food, and bottled water, in case such computer-sensitive systems as water services, traffic lights, and ATMs failed. Around the country Y2K command centers were fully staffed and emergency personnel prepared for the unknown. It was a suspenseful New Year's Eve.

Then the clock struck midnight. Nothing important failed. The electric grid remained stable, phones and ATMs worked fine, and airplanes continued flying to their destinations. The apocalyptic prophecies published in newspapers and aired on television proved inaccurate. Discussing your Y2K fears in 1999 seemed prudent -- but by Jan. 2, 2000, those fears were already outdated. Y2K proved little more than an odd panic in generally peaceful and prosperous years.

Americans have weathered their share of panics. From witch-hunts to bank runs and red scares, these moments in US history reveal the psycho-social state of the nation. Panics allow us access to our subconscious fears. They demonstrate an acknowledgement of the frailty of our security. They can be understood as natural responses to a world that is constantly changing.

From the distance of five years, the Y2K bug now appears a manifestation of our anxieties about our dependence on technology. We didn't know then -- and most of us still do not know -- anything about the systems that keep ATMs working, airplanes flying, and traffic lights flashing. Once these communications systems threatened us with failure we were forced to acknowledge our faith in incomprehensibly complex technologies.

That kind of questioning evaporated once our systems proved reliable. Our machines served us well, and our faith was restored. Y2K reaffirmed our confidence in the technologies of everyday life.

From today's perspective the Y2K fears seem humorous. Yet to dismiss the moment as meaningless is to miss its wider import. There is one significant, yet far less well-known legacy of the Y2K scare. In the late 1990s, as computer programming companies were hired to check literally billions of lines of computer code, they faced an impossible task. How could such large volumes of code be checked in a cost-efficient and timely manner? How could a work force be put together for such a technically skilled yet labor-intensive (and tedious) job?

The answer to that question is the true legacy of Y2K. That skilled and cheap work force was discovered overseas. Over the previous decade technical schools in India and elsewhere produced a dependable and talented labor pool from which American programmers began to draw. There was a large expansion in the H1-B visa program, as the best and brightest from around the globe assisted us in solving our computer problems.

That work force proved so cost-effective and reliable that technology companies took notice after the millennium turned. To save money they continued to use this work force; the economic downturn in 2001 intensified this outsourcing of computer work. High salaried programming and quality control jobs, previously filled by Americans, moved to other countries.

Before 2000 our chief economic concerns centered upon shuttered factories being replaced by sweatshops in Mexico and China. Since 2000 those lost manufacturing jobs have been joined by an exodus of higher-wage, more technically skilled jobs. Although this process began in the late 1990s, Y2K greatly accelerated the trend. For American computer programmers and software developers, this was the real Y2K threat. And it lingers today.

Michael Socolow is an assistant professor of American studies at Brandeis University.