Apocalypse When?

Activities

Activity 1: Programme overview

Before Viewing

(Class or group discussion.)

Students may find it useful to pool their knowledge of:

• the history and purpose of calendars
• the meaning of the terms ‘Apocalypse’ and ‘Armageddon’
• the ‘millennium bug’ and its consequences

(Students may find it helpful to jot down key words while watching the programme, as a basis for a discussion of the programme’s underlying ideas (see ‘Background’ section).)

After Viewing

(Class or group discussion.)

Discuss what the programme reveals about:

• the use of calendars as communication systems
• the reasons for changes to calendar systems over the past three millennia
• how significant calendar dates are inextricably linked with religions and cults
• how modern methods of timekeeping have led to adjustments in day length and year length
• why calendars are crucial to the successful operation of the digital world, and the consequences of date-related software problems

Activity 2: The calendar of the future

(Group or individual activity.)

On paper or using a word-processing package, list the advantages and disadvantages of the current Western calendar system.

Devise a ratings system for comparing the usefulness of different calendars.

Think about, or brainstorm as a group, possible ways of overcoming the disadvantages you have identified.

Compare your suggestions with some of the solutions proposed on this website:

http://www.calendarhome.com/clink/reform.html

Decide which is the most useful ‘calendar of the future’.

Activity 3: The bug that didn’t bite

(Class or group discussion.)

The Western world spent billions of dollars on tackling the so-called millennium bug.

In the UK, British Telecom alone spent £300m.

In Asia, Pakistan spent a small fraction of the total UK spend; none of their planes fell out of the sky and all public and commercial facilities passed into 01.01.2000 without, as far as we know, serious problems.

• What was your own impression or experience of the ‘no-show’ apocalypse of the millennium bug?
• Compare the approaches taken by Pakistan and the UK, and discuss the possible reasons why they differed.
• Who do you think were the winners, and who were the losers, in this technological non-Armageddon?