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The standard debate is wrong: "It's a technical problem" vs. "It's a business problem." Both views indicate that the problem can be solved. The real problem is systemic. This is not a popular view. Here is one British commentator who has understood this.
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Industrialists in Britain tend to dismiss this as scaremongering, saying they will have sorted out their computers by the due date. This may be true, though one is a little sceptical of the confidence shown by those who have still to start work on the issue because the deeper one gets into almost any computer problem the more complicated it tends to become.
The real difficulty, however, is that they see it as a problem for their business, while the real threat is systemic. We are all interdependent on each other's computers. We are all interlinked and the system is as strong as the weakest link in the chain. If any of the machines in a bank, the Inland Revenue , the Department of Trade and Industry or a distribution house or controlling London's traffic lights, or routeing calls round the phone networks, or making key components, or controlling railway signalling, or credit checking, or pumping sewage - if any of them fail, we will all be affected. If enough of them fail commercial life will face a slowdown so sharp that recession becomes inevitable.
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