The evolution of the millennium bug

How could mankind knowing the year 2000 would inevitably arrive, manoeuvre into worldwide technical problems because of a little computer bug! Two maj or parallels can be drawn to biological systems, and both ave based on evol utionary principles. First; any new steps in development are founded on bui lding blocks invented earlier Basic building blocks are hardly changed anym ore because further developments depend on their function. Second, imperfec tions of such building blocks are irrelevant as long as no corresponding se lection pressure exists. If a time-coded computer bug occurs sufficiently e arly during technological development it can become part of innumerous hard -wired or soft-coded programs and devices without ever attracting attention . However, the arrival of a certain date can instantly put a high selection pressure upon it. This behaviour can be understood as a direct consequence of the autonomous dynamics that the development of complex systems implica tes.