Humble Pi: When Math Goes Wrong in the Real World

by Matt Parker

Once we live in an entirely 64-bit world, we are safe. The question is: will we upgrade all the multitude of microprocessors in our lives before 2038? We need either new processors or a patch that will force the old ones to use an unusually big number to store the time. Here is a list of all the things I’ve had to update the software on recently: my lightbulbs, a TV, my home thermostat, and the media player that plugs into my TV. I am pretty certain they are all 32-bit systems. Will they be updated in time? Knowing my obsession with up-to-date firmware, probably. But there are going to be a lot of systems that will not get upgraded. There are also processors in my washing machine, dishwasher, and car, and I have no idea how to update those. It’s easy to write this off as a second coming of the Y2K “millennium bug” that wasn’t. That was a case of higher level software storing the year as a two-digit number, which would run out after 99. With a massive effort, almost everything was updated. But a disaster averted does not mean it was never a threat in the first place. It’s risky to be complacent because Y2K was handled so well. Y2K38 will require updating far more fundamental computer code and, in some cases, the computers themselves.