Shouldn't the Year 2000 be about fun?

Universal condemnation of the IT industry is well overdue. In the space of just 40 years, it has single-handedly created a situation which could ruin the biggest celebration the world has ever known.

People are not preparing for the millennium with far-reaching, ethical discussions about the future of human development - they're too busy wondering whether their computers will crash over night.

How short-termist can you get?

Ironically, this is precisely as short-termist as those programmers in the early days, who lacked the faith in their inventions to see that their work would last for so long.

It's not as though the world was begging for the information age in the first place. Employees have put up with backache and glazed eyes so that their business can operate more efficiently. Don't be deceived - the driving force behind all this was the vendors of IT equipment, not user demand.

The IT industry should be held solely responsible for armies marching the streets on the eve of 2000, for people boarding themselves up with fresh drinking water and canned food, and above all for worries about the uncertainty of it all.

The millennium is certainly a time for looking to the future, but not with anxiety - with hope.

We will be entering a new era, of which information is only one part. The human race should take the opportunity to consider its social and spiritual future - but thanks to the IT industry there will be no mental space for pondering: everyone is going to be scared stupid that their machines are going to break.

If you can, snap out of it. Look up, above and beyond the computer screen you're reading this on - and into the long-term of our future as a successful society.