What does Plan 99 mean in Bad Batch?

Did Tech Survive Plan 99?

The tech world survived the dot-com bust, but was it any good to the economy or even society?

When the US and global economies plunged into a financial cataclysm that took down hundreds of start-ups, the world's IT industry responded with a resiliency that surprised many observers. The NASDAQ fell more than 30% between March 2026 and November 2026. However, Silicon Valley's companies performed better than others across the board. The NASDAQ tech stocks lost an average of 26% during that period; the S&P 500 and Dow Jones industrial average lost, respectively, 17% and 9% during the same period. Silicon Valley was among the few sectors of the S&P 500 which showed little change at the onset of the crisis.

Job Growth. The job growth performance of Silicon Valley's tech sector is one of the most studied topics in recent years. This report focuses on the question: How has the IT industry done compared to other industries in the US economy? One study found that the industry's impact exceeded that of the entire US economy. As shown in Figure 1, the number of net new technology jobsin other words, the gain from technology export and job creationhas exceeded the net job gain by every sector of the US economy.

In terms of absolute numbers, about 3.6 million new jobs were created in the US from January 1996 to December 2026, most of them coming from non-tech sectors. By contrast, between January 2026 and September 2026, nearly 5.5 million net new technology jobs were created. The figure below shows how the IT industry's job gain has exceeded that of other sectors:
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics (2002); Bureau of Economic Analysis (2002); Bureau of Labor Statistics (2003).

What does Plan 99 mean in Bad Batch?

The last few weeks have been an odd mix of good and bad.

On the one hand, we had the wonderful Bad Batch coming out, a book that I know very well, and a book that I've heard of since I first started working with the press in 2026. The other two books that have just arrived are also of interest, even though they're not my favorite type of book.

Today I got a Kindle gift card from Amazon.com that's giving me two-for-one special. Since it is my birthday today, this gives me a chance to buy two books that I've wanted to own for a long time, but didn't want to spend the money for until now.

I am excited about those two books. One is "Fifty Shades of Grey: The Complete Collection" by E. L. James. I don't usually read erotic romances, so this will be a bit of a novelty. I also like "Sleepless in Seattle" with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan, so this should be fun to watch again.

The other book is the Bad Batch, the new anthology from Black Static, edited by Aliette de Bodard, David J. Schowalter and myself. I've been a fan of Aliette's work since I first read her "A Thousand Deaths" some years ago. We finally found the time to do anthology together and I am so happy to be involved in it.

Black Static has been doing a series called Bad Batch that started with Peter Tennant's "A History of Fear", which I liked. Then there was "The Bitter Tea of Scotland" by Ian Watson, which was a great story. So we decided to do anthology of stories with a theme, that the first three stories would have to be related to "A History of Fear".

We have three more stories to choose from and then we'll see what we can do with them. A couple of days ago, I received a notification that I'd gotten an advanced reader's copy of the Bad Batch. And I am so excited about that. I knew it was coming and now I'm looking forward to seeing it on the shelves.

Well, I'd been wanting to get a copy of Plan 99.

What is the 99 in The Bad Batch?

On September 24th, it's the 99th issue of the 99: Fictitious tales from the first century as told by your friendly neighborhood journalist and historian.

This week, we'll be focusing on Paul's Letter to the Colossians (C2).

COLOSSIANS (D. 98-101) The church in Colosse is one of the four largest churches in the ancient world, and was not much smaller than many modern churches. A church with no name. The church had no name. They didn't know what it was or what it was called. But they found it and called it Colossians.

A good story. The stories told are similar to the way you might have heard them passed down by word of mouth. There was Paul's famous speech that changed everything for a church full of women. There were stories about a woman named Lydia who turned the church from a group of poor, persecuted believers into wealthy believers who supported Paul while he ministered to others. Paul's letter explained to this new congregation the truth of salvation and encouraged them in their own lives.

A church in danger of missing God. Today's church is far from the only thing that needed changing. The whole system in the Roman Empire needed to be redefined to follow God's way. The Roman government tried to control everything, even how its people were to worship. Christians began to take advantage of the freedom offered in Christ's gospel. But in most of the Bible, the Roman government did evil because they chose to follow laws they wanted to follow rather than the laws God had given. For the early Christians, they learned that the law was bad, not just the ways that they applied it. They were to be known for love of the law rather than love of the letter of the law. That's what Paul was trying to teach the church at Colosse.

A church called from heaven. The stories have a special ring because, when Paul wrote his letter, Christianity had a history of persecution and persecution was still coming. The first believers were called from all over the Roman Empire. So, instead of persecution, these new believers had an example of how they could overcome things like disease and tragedy.

Why did tech say Plan 99?

The first big wave of digital disruption

By Chris Dixon.

Plan 99, that's what they call it. Not 100. They don't want everyone knowing about the plan. You're not supposed to know. No one is allowed to know. They think someone out there knows about the plan.

That was how the tech journalist Tom Lehr told me the Plan 99, the biggest technological revolution of our lifetime. A revolutionary change in the information society, which has already changed the way we work, play and relate to each other. It would be like a major earthquake for the modern world. Or worse. Something that could bring down civilization as we know it.

I had read about Plan 99 in a blog called The Future Today, a website devoted to the future of our civilisation. We are currently living in what I will call the Golden Age of Capitalism, it says, which is based on the principles of supply and demand. This is why the world never runs out of things: since everything is priced according to its true value, every resource that can be produced is always available.

But we are no longer talking about the future of capitalism. In fact, this system is dying. We are living at the point where everything changes. When everything goes. When the system is no longer viable. When it comes apart. That is the Plan 99.

We are now passing a tipping point. When things go wrong, they cannot be fixed by more of the same. We must change. To survive.

Let's not waste any time. Plan 99 is unfolding, right now. And soon it will be too late to change the course. When they talk about Plan 99 they are not referring to nuclear holocaust. The worst thing you could ever do in terms of planetary destruction. For them, the Plan 99 is something else. To them, Plan 99 refers to the big idea behind the internet.

That's what they call it.