The Y2K problem was apparent when I was in college in 1980's.

In the spring of 1983 the professor teaching my BASIC class pointed out the problem of Y2K and the fact that nobody seemed particularly interested.

An older gentleman in one of my History classes had to be registered with the birth year as 00 because the computer couldn't deal with 1898! (The old boy passed away before he could graduate. He was legally blind and his wife had to read his lessons to him.)

Curiously, at the same university IN NEW ORLEANS, a grad student that was teaching geology explained how New Orleans was going to be wiped out. It wasn't the water from the river that was the danger but the water from Lake Ponchatrain