Editor’s note: The Y2K Bug, aka the Millennium Bug, is a more hotly debated topic the closer the world inches to the new millennium. Over the next three issues, the Daily will be featuring reactions and speculation about the “Bug.” For today’s article, reporter Luke DeKoster sought students’ opinions about what kind of impact they think Y2K will have on us. Tomorrow’s article will discuss the effects of the glitch on the U.S. economy and Wednesday’s article will detail how area churches are preparing for the year 2000.

Widespread blackouts. Martial law. Armed mobs pillaging the countryside.

Or …

Minor computer glitches. Quick solutions. Citizens pulling together.

As the year 2000 draws near, there is no shortage of predictions about what will happen. Some are forecasting worldwide panic; others, less concerned, shrug off thoughts of calamity.

Iowa State students seem to fit more into the second camp.

“I think by now most of the companies have anticipated this and taken care of potential problems, so it shouldn’t be that big of a deal,” said Jason Morgan, sophomore in business.

The consensus among experts in business and industry is that Morgan — and others — are right not to worry. It’s not going to be cheap, they say, but the so-called Y2K Bug will be sufficiently exterminated by the end of the year.

“If people are doing something now, hopefully it will be OK. I’m not real worried about it,” said Carrie Chavez, undeclared sophomore.

The seed at the root of the Y2K Bug was planted in the 1950s when, in an effort to conserve memory space, pioneering computer programmers wrote years with two digits instead of four.

Now, when “99” changes to “00,” today’s techies are worried that computers will read the year as 1900, not 2000, causing innumerable snarls in communications, banking and other sectors of the economy.

Many people are planning to keep extra cash on hand just in case, but not Chavez.

“I don’t have very much money in the bank,” she said with a laugh. “If I did have large amounts of money, I would do something with it.”

Ben Gran, undeclared junior, said he’s going to keep close tabs on his assets.

“I might withdraw some money from the bank just so I can have some cash around if there are problems with the ATMs,” he said.

Still, Gran said, the Y2K Bug doesn’t concern him.

“I don’t really think it will really turn out to be as big a deal as the media has made it out to be,” he said. “I don’t think it will be a worldwide catastrophe or anything.”

There are students who foresee problems in the new millennium. Mitch Day, freshman in physics, is one of them.

“I think that we’re going to be out of electricity for months, maybe,” he said. “I’m just kind of surprised by how people don’t worry about it enough.”

Day said oil pipelines, power grids and other vital structures contain billions of integrated circuits that are not Y2K-ready. Compounding the problem, many of these circuits use the antiquated computer language COBOL.

“The problem can’t be localized. It’s everywhere,” Day said.

“Programmers can’t just reprogram all of these integrated circuits,” he said. “In order for it to be okay, it has to be 100 percent correct, and it’s not going to be. … If one part of the system doesn’t work, it all kind of crashes.”

Despite his worries, Day won’t be hiding out in the woods or camping in the Canadian wilderness as some doomsayers plan to do.

“I suppose I’ll stock up a little bit more on food, but it’s mostly the electricity I worry about,” he said.

He has advised his parents to go to Florida to stay warm when the power goes out. “It’s going to be in the dead-middle of winter,” Day said.

One non-technological consequence of the year 2000 could be fanatics — both religious and secular — who take advantage of the public’s increased attention to end-of-the-world predictions.

“When the time comes, it’ll probably get me a little paranoid, with everybody going crazy,” said Melissa Meyers, freshman in pre-architecture.

“There’s probably people out there who are going to use this as an excuse to go gung-ho,” Chavez said. “If something tells them there’s something about the year 2000, they’re going to go for that.”

Gran said he’s playing it safe.

“I’ll just stay away from anyplace with any sort of significance to any major religion,” he said.

Chavez plans to enjoy spending time with her family.

“I’ll be with all my family,” she said, “and in case anything exciting and major happens, I’ll be kickin’ it with them.”