Nothing to Fear

Jim Martin cut his teeth on big computers in the early 1970s, and was one of a handful of programmers who realized even then that the two-digit dating system had the potential to wreak havoc on this country's economic and social fabric as the year 2000 approached.

"Nothing to Fear" opens as an accidental propane tank fire consumes a family compound established on the border of the Los Padres National Forest near the Santa Ynez Valley of Central California. Jim Martin, who sold the Steinharts the property, was well aware that they bought the property to escape the possible chaos that might ensue by escalating Y2K fears, since Martin had spent years working in the computer industry before settling in the bucolic valley village of Los Olivos with his wife and daughter.

In the late 1990s, the federal government belatedly starts to take the "bug" seriously and calls Jim to Washington to consult, after discovering reports and letters he had written 20 years earlier warning the government of possible fallout. As the "bug" begins slowly and progressively to enter into the national consciousness, events begin to unfold around the nation and in Jim's own community, triggered by alarm over what may or may not happen. Now Jim must accelerate his quest to reassure people that there really is "Nothing to Fear."

Jefferey Modic, is president of American Information Engineering Corp., an information management services company based in Tres Pinos, California. He served as an advisor to the federal government on Y2K and other information management issues. Modic distinguished himself early on from those experts who predicted doom-and-gloom, since he has consistently espoused that the Millennium Bug would cause "inconveniences," not unlike those causing havoc around the world since the dawning of the year 2000.