Hey there again, tiktakers! Today we'll be getting a bit paranoid and conspiratorial.
Most of you might be too young to remember, but more than once people have talked about the
day a computer apocalypse will take place. So, let's go ahead and see what this is all about:
About 20 years ago many preached that a computer apocalypse would take place, saying that December
31 of 1999 would be the last day of the world. Even from the seventies, people had
been giving warnings about how computers cannot distinguish between the values of 1900 and 2000,
the start of the new millennium. Many talked about the different catastrophes that would take place
that day, including a nuclear massacre. Thus, a lot of people rushed to buy basic necessities…
however, besides a few computer failures here and there, there was no end of the world.
And now tiktakers, we have a new date when some people believe that all
electronic devices and computer systems will collapse. They've named it the "2038 effect",
because they say it will take place on January 19 of that year, in the middle of the night.
Now, you might be wondering how did they determine that date. Well, most of today's technology is
based on 32-bit systems. These systems allow us to store memory, and carry out processes, using 32
binary digits – that is, zeroes and ones. This means that 32-bit systems have a limit value of
2.147.483.647. Now, since these systems store time in seconds, and we assume the 32-bit architecture
started being used on January 1st of 1970, then the limit value would be reached on January 19
of 2038. When that happens, all computer systems will confuse that date with December 13 of 1901!
It's a bit complicated tiktakers, but basically, since 32-bit systems will have no more capacity
to store time, once January 19 of 2038 comes, all computer systems based on the 32-bit architecture
will collapse! As an example, this can be verified in many different phone models
since they will not allow you to set up a time and date after January 19 of 2038.
And the next question would be: What would be the consequences of this collapse?
Well, it could either result in dates not working correctly in your phone… or your phone becoming
completely unusable. And this happening to our mobile devices might not be catastrophic…
but imagine an airplane without a GPS, or a car without its airbag… it could be chaos, tiktakers!
That said, you shouldn't worry about this. Technology advances pretty quickly, and now many
systems work using a 64-bit architecture, which has a much higher capacity to store information.
And if you don't believe us, ask YouTube! The limit of the old system was seen when the view
counter for the viral video Gangnam Style went crazy after going over the 32-bit limit value.
It's true that this is not a definitive solution, but we're sure that computer experts are
working on one. And we are pretty sure that, just like it happened in the year 2000, no end
of the world will take place in the year 2038, and we'll keep on living our normal lives after that.