The Internet Will End in 30 Years!
Have you heard the latest doomsday scenario? In thirty years, the internet will stop working! Apparently, a bug similar to the millennium bug will affect Unix-based systems, like those that run the tubes, in the year 2038. The bug, being dubbed the "2038 bug," arises because Unix-based systems store the time as a signed 32-bit integer, in seconds, from midnight on January 1 1970. And the latest time that can be represented in that format, by the Posix standard, is 3:14 AM on January 19, 2038. After that, times will wrap around and be represented as a negative number.
And then what happens?
Programs will fail, of course. Since they will see times not as being in 2038 but rather in 1901, erroneous calculations and decisions will occur. (It's true, I checked Wikipedia!)
We've actually seen fallout from the 2038 bug already, back in May of 2006 when the AOLserver web server software crashed. The software was designed so that database requests would "never" time out. Instead of assigning a "0" to the timeout, the software specified a timeout date one billion seconds in the future. One billion seconds (just over 31 years 251 days and 12 hours) after 21:27:28 on 12 May 2006 is beyond the 2038 cutoff date. The system calculated a timeout date that was actually in the past, got confused, and crashed.
The bug even affected the Mars Rover!
Want More Proof?
Check out the archived outputs from test scripts here:
- http://www.lugmen.org.ar/pipermail/lug-list/2005-May/035318.html
- http://www.sec.org.il/coverages.php?c=53
- http://unix.derkeiler.com/Mailing-Lists/AIX-L/2004-01/0011.html
What's Affected?
By 2038, it's likely that many of the susceptible machines will have been decommissioned before the critical date occurs. However, legacy systems and embedded systems could still be affected. These may include process control computers, space probe computers, embedded systems in traffic light controllers, navigation systems, routers, gas pumps, etc. It may not be possible to upgrade many of these systems, so they will need to be replaced.
I'm a Programmer - What Can I Do?
- Test your code or use utilities such as the FakeTime Preload Library.
- See the programming recommendations from The Open Group (formerly X/Open), which maintains the Unix specification and trademark.
- If you're working with Open Source code, this free library may be a useful reference for patching existing code for high-accuracy longterm time calculation.
- Read the Solutions to the Year 2000 Problem by Steve Manley. Many of his suggestions can be applied to the 2038 problem, too.
- Keep tabs on any recent updates on the 2038 Bug web site
(Source: the 2038 FAQ)
The End?
Before mass hysteria sets in, let's all remember that we have years, decades even, to deal with this latest programming glitch.
And as for the internet?
Well, I'm pretty sure that self-improving Artificial Intelligences will be running the world by then, so we probably don't need to worry too much about this.
(via guardian.co.uk)
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Given my current life stage, in 30 years I'm likely to have a college kid or recent graduate.
Time to consider grooming him to be a consultant ;-)
Hi to all,
times ago I read about John Titor, the time traveler appeared on Internet in 2000.
Titor claimed to be an American soldier from the year 2036, based in Tampa in Hillsborough County, Florida who was assigned to a governmental time travel project. He had been sent back to 1975 to retrieve an IBM 5100 computer which he said was needed to "debug" various legacy computer programs in 2036; a reference to the UNIX 2038 timeout error. The 5100 runs the APL, and BASIC programming languages. Titor had been selected for this mission specifically due to the fact his paternal grandfather was directly involved with the building and programming of the 5100.
Read the rest of the story on Wikipedia. Seems in line with your post.
Have a nice day.
Now this end of world scenario reached the internet, funny.
This sounds alot like the Y2K bug..hahah. By the time 2038 comes around i'm sure all will be fixed and will continue to work until Y3K.
Bogus. First, computer's won't think it's 1901. Someone at Wikipedia got this mixed up with the Y2K bug. When the time_t's wrap around the signed 32-bit binary representation of a very large positive number will overflow into the first bit of the integer. A 1 as the first bit indicates a negative number. Thus, in 2038, computers will start counting time backwards, starting from the unix epoch (NOT from 1900). Or, depending on how the addition is performed, they may just start counting forward from negative 0 (making time wrap back to 1970, not 1901).
More importantly, though, is the fact that pretty much all 64bit machines are already using 64bit time_t's. And hopefully in 30 years the vast majority of machines (at least the important ones) will be 64bit.
I highly doubt it will actually happen, but if it were then at least the internet would be able to *finally* correct itself!
.....Sounds like a good idea to me as long as services can get back up and running within a month or so.
On a humorous note,the world is ending in 2012.
Read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012#Metaphysical_predictions
So no worries
Let's stay focus and don´t get lazy until 2038, not for me but to the next generation will be a concern like y2k.
For ten years or more those will be replaced so don´t worry.
What's hilarious is that who knows where we'll even be in thirty years! The internet as we know it will have changed anyway--just look at the last five years we've had internet. No one could have predicted that sites like myspace could have even functioned, yet they are now part of "society."
-Pam Mosbrucker
http://www.smallbusinessonlinecollege.org/freevideos.html
I'm worried already about what this will mean for the brain implant I'm sure to have in 30 years!
I hate to point this out because it seems selfish, but it's true. That's the day I officially can retire -- one day after my 65th birthday. Guess the world does revolve around me after all. Heh.
Mike, you're bogus. The UNIX epoch is 1970, not 1901. 2038 - 1970 = 68. 1970 - 68 = 1902 (close enough).
Besides, won't the internet grind to a halt because of the wires being overfilled in a year or two? Or that's what I heard. But the world needs bandwidth.
Quoting a Digger's comment:
bullshit
It wont be much of a bug as all our 32 bit machines and s/ws will be wiped off and will be off support from the manufactured companies.
This wont affect us unless we have a timemachine now which will carry us and our 32 bit machines to 2038 + instantly.
Well atleast someone actually figured it out decades before it could actually happen, the 2000 year bug left people in a tizzy!
The 2038 "bug" featured in this story is the very problem that purported time traveler John Titor was sent back from 2036 to obtain a solution for. Seems that older equipment running IBM mainframe code in that post-nuclear society is going to stop working in 2038 and Titor, a soldier on a mission, retrieved an IBM 5100 from 1975 which had the unusual capability of running mainframe code and could translate between languages.
John Titor's complicated journey included a trip to 2000, when he began posting online as part of his mission to study our culture, a culture so superficial as to be willing to give up its freedoms for a little security. Though nobody could have projected back in 2000-2001 that our civil liberties would be seriously threatened by our own government, that has indeed turned out to be the case and Titor's story is now widely believed to have been genuine. Of course right-wingers will deny that because they are uncomfortable admitting that America is headed toward a police state, but it's obviously true to any objective observer.
Fortunately for us, it appears that Titor's visit here may have catalyzed sufficient change for us to modify our timeline by now to be significantly different than the one Titor lived through. The pace of the police state has not progressed at the rate Titor suggested it would (though the hundreds of FEMA detention camps that have been built suggest we are still in great danger of a full-bore American police state) and we may yet avoid the predicted global nuclear war in 2015.
The best part of Titor's story (the Internet is filled with frauds, after all) is that he backed it up with photos, documentation, and general operating principles of his time travel machine, which some scientists believe may actually work. See details at http://www.johntitor.strategicbrains.com/TimeMachine.cfm . It uses twin microsingularities which according to Titor will be first created at CERN's Large Hadron Collider, and physicists will learn to trap and 'cool' them so they can be used. Our world may become very much more interesting in the next few years if Titor's device is built and not kept secret.
Even if this 100% true, I think that as long as the fixes are done by anyone other than the government, we should be fine.
As far as John Titor, excellent idea if true
"(It's true, I checked Wikipedia!)"
That line made me literally laugh!
Very interesting. if it's true, my sister must love it
Microsoft recommends: "Migrate to Windows Server now and help keeping Internet alive!"
holly crap that means I will loose all access to porn?!!
everybody panic! I need a t100 to reprogram and travel back in time to stop this.
Ohhh man, sounds like another marketing scam like Y2k.Puhlease!! This ain't no doomsday prediction. Think like a capitalist, this is just about some people making money....sooo think how do I make money from this. Then again in 30 years, I'd be a retired billionaire chilling on the half of Jamaica I own.
thanks
GET OUT NOW PEOPLE!
Isn't this what Sarah Connor has come back in time to prevent? Isn't Skynet behind this? I suggest we start building space rockets in order to transport us to another planet -- that or let the machines take over the world and figure it out.
...and to think we could have postponed this for another 68 years and change, had they designated the value to be unsigned. But no. Now my medicare taxes will go to pay for the fixing of stuff so that I don't get charged 1902 prices for medication...
Hm. Think about that one. Medication in 1902 was horrifically expensive. There may not be much difference in price after all.
And yeah, the Wikipedia == true comment was pretty funny.
Sounds horrible. I wouldn't sweat it much though, the world won't make it past 2012.
2038 won't matter, the Mayans say the world will end (or "shift consciousness" on December 21, 2012 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayanism#December_21.2C_2012).
"The significance of this date in Mayanism stems from the ending of the current baktun cycle of the Maya calendar in 2012, which many believe will create a global "consciousness shift" and the beginning of a new age. This concept was introduced by New Age spiritual leader José Argüelles in his book The Mayan Factor (1987) and promoted at the 1987 Harmonic Convergence. The astronomical conjunction of the black hole at the center of the galaxy with the winter solstice Sun on December 21, 2012, referred to by John Major Jenkins in Galactic Alignment as having been predicted by the ancient Maya and others, is a much-anticipated event in Mayanism. Although Jenkins suggests that ancient Maya knowledge of this event was based on observations of the "dark rift" in the Milky Way as seen from Earth, others see it as evidence of knowledge imparted via ancient contact with extraterrestrial intelligence (ancient astronaut theories). The relevance of modern "dark rift" observations to Pre-Columbian and traditional Maya beliefs is strongly debated, and academic archaeologists reject all theories regarding extraterrestrial contact, but it is clear that the promotion of Mayanism through interest in 2012 is contributing to the evolution of religious syncretism in contemporary Maya communities."
- www.JoeLevi.com
wooo... i think the author of unix os should fixes this bugs before the future time of years 2038 :)
Ha. Too bad for those Linux users. :P
Too bad. hopefully it's more hype like Y2K than being true - we might have to go back to stone age. uh..
Just one number and one word: 64 bit
When I got to the "It's true, I checked Wikipedia!" I was relieved to find that this article was a spoof. But then, sadly, I realized that it wasn't. It's unfortunate that some people think that just because they have a computer and access to the Internet that other people care to read their pathetic thoughts. Sarah, this article is a complete waste of time. Such a waste of time that it was a moral imperative for me to waste even more time telling you.