When thinking about the meaning of time late in 1999, now just months away from the year 2000, it is impossible to ignore the Y2K bug. Physicists Per Bak and Kan Chen, who work at the Santa Fe Institute, wrote a decade ago that systems as large and as complicated as the earth's crust, the stock market, and the ecosystem are not only impacted by the force of a mighty blow but also at a drop of a pin. (Bak and Chan,1991, pg. 46) Large interactive systems perpetually organise themselves to a critical state in which a minor event starts a chain reaction that can lead to a catastrophe. [5] Along with their colleague Chao Tang, they proposed a theory of self-organised criticality: many composite systems naturally evolve to a critical state in which a minor event starts a chain reaction that can affect a number of elements in the system. Chain reactions are a integral part of the dynamic system. As Fuller proposed with synergetics decades before, their approach is holistic-global features of the system cannot be understood by analysing the parts separately. Y2K, then, is such a pin.

6.9.2 The computer, with its internal clock set to make the problematic shift, is based on Western, Christian time. The year 2000 has great significance for us, but it is not so for the Hindus, Jews, Jains, and other religions, other calendars. [6] If we are truly thinking about a global economy, we have to accept many different views of time as well, not simply force the rest of the world to abide by Western principles. [top]