Retorts

Is Your Mind Year 2000 Compliant?

The future is nigh; the 21st century arrives in little over 2 years! And we'll see it first from our latitude. Will the wearing of silver bodysuits be obligatory?

How will collective global culture cope with the future becoming the present? Will we experience present-shock? I believe that even the most technologically sophisticated among us would have trouble answering the question of where we are to anchor our concept of the future once 2000 has arrived.

The 21st century can't be futureless, but where should the future be? 3,000 is just too far away and 2050 doesn't have the same ring to it.

And what are we to call the new century? Calling it "the zeros" seems overly negative, but saying "two thousand" seems like a mouthful. This is a problem that cuts deeper than year-2000 date stamp compliance because it involves the psyches of all of us.

Craig Webster, Auckland