h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Well if the Millennium bug hits hard we could call it the 'buggies'.
If it hits so hard that the nuclear power plants etc. go tits up then we can leave the naming conventions to the next errm 'intelligent' species on the planet that evolves after us and starts using what's left of us as fuel.

You're very close - it'll be called the "ems" as there are two ems in MM which is the Roman numeral for this upcoming decade. We'll be through with MCMLXLIX and then it'll be just MM, MMI, MMII, etc. So the next decade for sure and probably the whole next millenium WILL be called the "ems". Trust me on this.

It is quite possible that these two extra digits could result in a rapid depletion of pen ink worldwide. If one can believe that Y2K is really just a ploy by Bill Gates to get everyone to buy new computers, then one can also imagine that the year 2000 is also a conspiracy by the world's pen manufacturers to double their sales literally overnight.

It's got to be the "Ohs".

Forget logic. Consider how music Dee-jays will promote their "oldies" radio stations:

"Y'all come on back now to WY2K -- where we play the great hits of the 80's the 90's and the _______'s"

I'm for the "Ohs", and, looking forward, the "Tens" (or "Teens").

Whatever we call it, it's gotta have a verbal 'flow' for the radio.

Well, what do we call the last time the 2-digit calender turned back to clear?
The biggest thing I hear of that is 'the turn of the century'

So, I figgres, that at about 2010 or so, the '00' decade will be ' the Turn of the Millenium'

Yeah, it's a bit long, but figure that newspapers are filling up with catchy overused sayings like that ANYWAY, it'll be in vouge and overdone soon enough.

I agree, I've always heard of the decade 1900's as "the turn of the century". The only problem is that that phrase could reasonably refer to one decade in either direction... maybe in the next century children will finally have a sense of personal identity and not need to develop a connection to their group (decade, century, race, class, gender, etc) in order to feel whole. And maybe pigs will fly.

Another bit of unfinished business:
With the advances in genetic engineering lately, why hasn't anyone grown a pig with wings? Or at least one smart enough to get It's pilot's licence. It would definately be worth a substantial amount of research to see some people do some very silly things after losing some very silly best.
Where is my pig with wings?

"Turn of the Century" or "Turn of the Millennium" could be more accurately used to describe the year 2000, since regardless of whether you believe the new C or M starts at the beginning or the end of 2000, it is the year in which the Turn occurs, it is the Cusp of change. And I think the prospect of a year long party is wholly appealing!

So if you want a year-long party, why not have a decade long one? Instead of it being the decade of the Noughties, it could be the decade of the Parties.

Alternatively, we could adopt a Chinese New Year approach, but instead of it being "year of Dragon/Rat/Monkey/Rabid Gerbil", we could have "Year of Lager/Bitter/Vodka Redbull/Bloody Mary" but NOT year of the Alcopop.

The question is that if we call it the 'Turn of the Millennium', how will that fit on our check books. I personnally wouldn't want to fil lin my checks as "1/1/Turn of the Millennium". I would prefer just "1/1/1", that starts new bug, only one digit in the year, lets see the progammers sort that one out!

Wheres your winged Pig - simply my dear it's flooooown away, which is the reasen the darn scientists have severe problems breading the creature...

If it aggravates, you must abbreviate! 1/1/TOM should fit in all those cheques and forms, and be easy to remember! I mean, who could forget a year named Tom?

Yeah but that would only work for year 1. Then we are back to my idea of 'plussie'. Cheques would then be 01/01/TOM+1, hrm.. I think I'm onto somthing here, where's that copyrighting company. This one's mine.


28/09/TOM-1 (c) Patent Pending

I like that TOM and Plussies idea - but the "noughties" are ideal for embarassing typos... "have you been born in the naughties?"

but the nineties could use the same discription , The naughty nineties. After all, it is the decade of the wonderbra, Ann Summers finally being trendy and consider the movies of the decade. Sex has become a way of life in the nineties. So whats next. Will the TOM(+10) [Trademark discription of Turn of the Millennium decade] be the decade of Internet, will the world become geeks. With the mass outcome of mobile phones in this decade (an invention that surely must allow thousands to have illict affairs, if only for the phone sex aspect), will the TOM(+10) become there era of email and hand held browsers.
I for one cannot wait until the offical release of the HHGTTG unit that will give me any info at the type of a word (or even talk to it) and what will it be called, a book is to small a word for it.

So, we have a unit that holds all the possible information about this planet, give it the ability to browse the web at high speeds, make phone calls, even video conference and who needs to worry about the date?

The millenium will no longer matter. Time will become singular. Your time is all that would matter, no matter where. This will of course make going anywhere a problem. Planes will fly when they want, trains turn up when they want (no change there then) and pubs would close when they though. Ah, there is a small problem with this plan, maybe we should just stick with the consept of Internet time. Meet me for luch at 500 beats anyone?

How about the double oh's, you know as in James bond double oh seven... and when we hit the year 10, we will be into the next decade, and we have 10 years to figure out what they will be called...

I think that we have to face the fact that we will get a bond film in 2007 anyway (how could they miss such an oppertunity). I can even imagine the trailer now.

Image:

In Winter 2007

Bond walks in a shots the '2' off.

Speech:

Coming soon..... James Bond in 'In Winter Times'

{If this does happen, I would like credit, thanks. Hell, I'd even settle for a cameo)

The O-ties (pronounced oaties) is the bestc suggestions, because the noughties becomes the naughty noughties!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think there's a problem with this "Oh" thing. Because I can already see it now, you see, when we refer to 2000, there are infact 3 zeros. This would hence mean the year 2000 itself would become "Ohs".

Following this, when people later on want to refer to the decade from 2000 till 2009, they will put an extra plural on the word, hence making it "Oh's's" (pronounced "Oazies").

Now I don't know about you, but I for one would not like to be called an "Oazy". It gives an impression of a lazy, unintelligent lifestyle (perhaps fom the words 'Dozy' and 'Oozy'). Of course, for some of us, this description is true, but I'll ignore that point for now..

We could always call the next decade "The decade that no-one really know what to call". That would be much more accurate than the "Ohies" "Noughties" "Zeros" "Turn of Millenium" or any other suggestions - although would be awkward writing down on cheques...