Just about every sector of life, business, government, banking, energy production, the justice system, health care, social welfare, has been computerized. That in itself is not an issue. But that these independent sectors of life are now linked to one another by computer is disturbing. The immediate danger is that systems are so vulnerable to failure. A failure in one element is a failure in all.
Problems ripple through systems.
At present, big businesses are putting a great deal of pressure on their buyers and suppliers to fix their own Y2K problems. The reason being that when one computer crashes it takes down each one it talks to. Likewise, the more developed countries are pressuring the less developed countries to get moving on their computer problems. The global economy we have constructed is, again, only as strong as its weakest link. The recent Asian economic crisis and its ripple effect illustrates the way in which the world has indeed become smaller and more interdependent.