Let's Talk 2000

March 15, 1996, Volume 2, Issue 5, a bi-weekly bulletin

The heartbeat of 2000 A.D. from cyberspace"

Topics covered in this issue:

The Millennium Doctor Speaks
News from the Field:

Chamber Focuses on 2000

Talk from the Forum:

Has our Petri Dish Become Putrid?

New Millennial Sites:

21C--"The magazine of the 21st century"
"Hystericizing the millennium" article
NASA's "New Millennium" program

Contact Information

The Millennium Doctor Speaks:

"Taking the pulse of 2000 A.D."

Much of what we see or hear about the "millennium" is presented for its shock value, rather than its redeeming value. Rarely do we read about what one community it doing to build its future. This issue of "Let's Talk 2000" looks at how one Chamber of Commerce is using the focus of the year 2000 to prepare for a quality new century.

For those joining us as new subscribers, keep in mind besides this bi-weekly bulletin, there is also a daily discussion forum, "Talk 2000." Rather than just two pages each two weeks, you can interact every day with an electronic townhall on turn of the millennium issues. For more information on how to subscribe, write talk2000@rmii.com, and ask for "Talk 2000 Invitation."

News from the Field:

"Here is the latest news on year 2000 efforts"

CHAMBER FOCUSES ON 2000
Has your local community begun to think about the year 2000... time capsules, town center concepts and countdown events? One group which is helping its community prepare for the "Quality Century Ahead" is the Central Bucks Chamber of Commerce. This past fall they formed a Focus 2000 task force.
Comprised of corporate executives, entrepreneurs, artists and architects, this Eastern Pennsylvania commission has been meeting monthly to consider how they can stimulate greater prosperity, effect positive change, and lead their community to celebrate the year 2000.
The brain child of local stock broker David Werrett, the Focus 2000 group has spawned different subgroups. The architectural committee has begun work on a "Model City." They plan to enter their work into competition with the American Institute of Architects. The business leader's committee intends to roll out a series of Expo 2000 seminars, dealing with topics such as "Expanding the Role of Women in Business" or "Business Practices and Ethics." And the community leaders sub-group is considering how to reinforce the arts, and string together a whole series of "milestone" events to heighten "Bucks Fever" during the turn of the century season.
Some of the early questions which the Focus 2000 task force considered are:

--What history will Central Bucks celebrate in 2000?
--What will the Bucks Beautiful programs be like in 2000?
--What commissioned arts and scholarship should be undertaken?
--Who will host the year 2000 Red Ball Gala?
--What resolutions will Chamber members make in the year 2000?

Given this focus on 2000, Chamber official Matthew Aigeldinger recently turned to the Internet for third millennium resources and found the Talk 2000 Forum. "We'd like to learn how other chambers around the world are focusing on 2000," Aigelinger said. Source: talk2000@rmii.com

Talk from the Forum:

"Here is a recap of recent conversations"

HAS OUR PETRI DISH BECOME PUTRID?
Is there hope our planet might be salvaged? Our scientist from Bolder, Penelope Boston, admits her natural optimism waivers when she looks to the future. She likens the political resistance to millennial environmentalism to uncontrolled bacteria in a petri dish:

It's probably no harder than taking a bunch of bacteria in a liquid culture out of excreting into their surroundings. "Now, bugs!" you say..."If you keep doing that, you're going to run out of nutrients and drown in your own filth." "Go away, you big nasty annoying Doom Sayer Human," they squeak in chorus. "The Divine Bacteria will provide, the beautiful and bounteous Flask within which we all live could NEVER be so polluted that we wouldn't be able to carry on in our prokaryotic bliss!" Shortly after that stage, when the culture flask is entirely packed with dead and dying cells, I autoclave 'em. Let's hope someone is as merciful towards us when the time comes.

Are people paying any attention to these millennial environmental warnings? Or have people in Texas returned to enjoying their T-bone steaks in spite of the doomsayers warnings? Richard Landes brought this thread to a conclusion when he surmised that humanity may have hit an impasse in its development due to notions of identity, sovereignty, nature, etc (God?), which we have inherited from the 19th century (holy postmodernism batman!). He suggested change can come through millennial mass movements, such as marches, etc., but the good they seek for society can turn to bad if everyone is not vigilant.

New Millennial Sites:

"Here are new sites in cyberspace"

21C: "The magazine of the 21st century"
Interested in scanning the future to see what havoc the millennium might wreak? With the design of a fine art magazine, Australian 21C Magazine will keep you abreast of the contemporary millennial scene of fear and the twisted edge of the technology. Their web site posts an April '95 table of contents plus sample articles:
"Apocalypse Culture"--looks at the harbingers of hell
http://www.21c.com.au/apocalyp.html
"Black Thunder"--reviews white-trash culture's obsession with government
http://www.21c.com.au/blackthu.html

HYSTERICIZING THE MILLENNIUM: "The Illusion of the End"
An excerpt from the writings of post-modernist Jean Baudrillard posted by "CTHEORY"--an international, electronic review of books on theory, technology and culture.
http://www.ctheory.com/a-hystericizing_the.html

NEW MILLENNIUM: "NASA's new spacecraft design"
Hoping to increase missions at reduced costs, NASA is spending $30 million this year in a new spacecraft design. The program, dubbed "New Millennium" aims to miniaturized spacecraft and demonstrate low-cost technologies for solar system exploration of the 21st century.
http://pdc.jpl.nasa.gov/users/NewMillennium/NMuniv.html

Contact Information:

"Your link to the third millennium"

Talk 2000 Forum Home Page: http://humnet.humberc.on.ca/talk2000.htm
Talk 2000 Newsgroup: bit.listserv.2000ad-l

Subscribe to daily Talk 2000 E-mail Forum: listproc@usc.edu
Include this command as the body of your message:
subscribe 2000ad-l <Your first & last name>

Subscribe to this "Let's Talk 2000" bi-monthly letter: talk2000@rmii.com
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Submissions of newsworthy items: 2000ad-l@usc.edu
Publisher & editor: talk2000@rmii.com

Jay Gary, aka The Millennium Doctor
author, The Star of 2000
(719) 636-2000 Phone