[107200] in Cypherpunks
Re: FC: How Y2K doomsayers got it wrong
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Anonymous)
Tue Jan 5 15:51:09 1999
Date: Tue, 5 Jan 1999 21:30:00 +0100
From: Anonymous <nobody@replay.com>
To: cypherpunks@cyberpass.net
Reply-To: Anonymous <nobody@replay.com>
Declan McCullagh wrote:
> I remember how early this year many Y2Kers were gleefully predicting
> widespread panic by early 1999, combined with a nose-diving Dow Jones
> industrial average and (get this) plummeting home values as the masses fled
> cities.
>
> Well, it didn't happen.
>
> Asking for prognostications and replaying them is a good way to evaluate
> the predictive abilities of doomsayers.
>
> -Declan
Of course, Declan was one of the main reporters pushing the idea that
Y2K would be a catastrophe. It's too bad he was foolish enough to take
advice from Tim May, who has a notoriously bad record as a prognosticator
(remember 1997's "Thanksgiving Surprise"?).
It is good to see that he is reverting to a more reasonable position now.
This should provide ample time for people to forget his earlier dalliance
with extremist views.
