When I first started working for the Bank of Montreal in the 1970’s people filled in paper slips for their transactions and these were used to manually post on ledger cards.

I thinking about this when reading about Delta’s computer crash this Monday, which caused massive delays and cancelation of flights (more than 5000 flights affected).  The impacts will continue well to the end of this week.

Back in the mid-seventies,  as BMO computerized its front end customer operations, the contingency was to fall back to the manual paper based processes. And on occassion we did.

No Longer

Since the turn of the century (2000) it has been clearly recognized we have built an infrastructure so dependent on computing operations there is virtual no way back, the software systems work or “Yikes” – the unspeakable.

Of course in a total collapse we would figure something out – human ingenuity being what it is.  But oh, the pain.  I shudder when I comtemplate it.

The answer of course is back-ups, auto fail-over and so on.  This preparedness includes advance alerts so we be forewarned and can react to danger.

Unfortunately these things are not infallible as the Delta experience shows (and this is not a unique case)

Should we worry

I grew up in the sixties with the real threat of nuclear armagedeon, (I imagine computer armagedon would be similar). So I have learned to focus on what I can control and the rest – well it is what it is.

One clear memory of those younger years is a  poster of instructions to follow  in event of a nuclear attack.  Things like staying away from windows and doorways, getting to shelter, stay away from sharp objects and the kicker last instruction – bend over and kiss your ass goodbye.

Good attitude.