Millennium Crash

Y2K is "a crisis without precedent in human history."

— Edmund X. DeJesus, "Year 2000 Survival Guide," BYTE (July 1998), pgs. 52-62

The Millennium Crash describes the collapse of most computer systems in the world during the date change from 1999 to 2000. This crash was caused by the so-called "Y2k-Bug". The consequences were global infrastructure collapse, economic depression and political instability. To this day, the Millennium Crash counts as the worst computer crash in history.

History

Night of the collapse and the first week

The events of the Millennium Crash began when a large part of the power plants failed with the date change. There was a massive blackout when the central computers of electricity and thermal power plants ceased operation as a result of their obsolete chips.

While nothing was noticed at first, people panicked the next morning at the latest. The electricity and heating still didn't work, the televisions didn't work, there was no newspaper delivery and the disaster warnings of the radio stations only announced that this problem affects the whole world.

24 hours after the first problems, the drinking water supply collapsed completely when the emergency generators stopped working due to overload and the water pumps no longer worked.

Within the first week, supplies within the cities became scarce. Due to continuing power failure, no more food could be transported. The streets from and into the cities were hopelessly clogged with cars as people tried to flee to the countryside.

Looting and fighting for important food began. The hospitals were overloaded. Telephone systems and couriers no longer work, messages can no longer get through because of the lack of electricity. The police can no longer control the looter, the prisons are overloaded. Several districts all over the world are burning down, as the fire brigade can no longer get to the fires because of the congested streets.

Breakdown and Corporation Help

In the first year after the turn of the millennium, chaos prevailed practically everywhere. Governments resorted to massive internal police and military operations but soon found that they were only making things worse. The loosened weapons laws and the increased presence of street gangs led to frequent armed clashes with the police, which had less and less support among the population.

Due to the sudden failure of all computer systems and databases, accounts were deleted all over the world, companies went bankrupt, the middle class became impoverished. When the stock exchange went online again, the prices of even the largest corporations fell into the bottomless, which resulted in a massive restructuring. Those who had invested in gold and the like bought up companies and corporations at a ridiculous price and formed the basis of what is now known as a megacorporation.

Smaller companies could no longer pay the workers, millions of people lost their jobs. The social systems were completely overburdened. All over the world, smaller countries plunged into absolute chaos. Still, others fell under the rule of a dictator.

In the First World, corporations were the quickest to recover. Especially the new corporations hired people and sold their services to the government - at a price that was not necessarily money, but influence and special rights to defend their own possessions. The extraterritoriality of megacorporations began here.

The restoration of a new order took a full five years. After that, the world was no longer what it had been in the old millennium.