The real Year 2000 problem will occur in 2038, and humanity will be set back 100 years.
On January 19, 2038, humanity will face another problem related to the Year 2000 problem, due to the way some operating systems measure time.
Machines do not measure the passage of time in the same way that humans do, and this is all due to the limitations that prevailed several decades ago.
When designing different systems, programmers constantly faced memory constraints, making each byte costly. To maximize efficiency, they decided to measure years in two digits instead of four.
Before the turn of the millennium, there was a clear collective concern: What would happen if machines interpreted the year 2000 as a return to 1900? Thus began what became known as the Year 2000 problem.
Apart from the catastrophic scenarios predicted by various media outlets and experts, such as planes falling from the sky or the forced shutdown of nuclear power plants, none of that happened in the end.
However, the technology sector has undergone a comprehensive global overhaul, with billions of dollars invested in software updates before any disaster occurs.
January 19, 2038 is a very dangerous date, as it will represent a crucial turning point.
Today, 32-bit and 64-bit systems coexist almost in perfect harmony, despite some differences between them.
In the case of 32-bit systems, the cause of the "Year 2038 problem" lies in how Unix systems—including Linux, Android, and the macOS kernel—measure time in seconds.
In this system, the leftmost bit is used to determine whether a number is positive or negative; on January 19, 2038, the maximum positive value will be reached, which is 2,147,483,647.
This could have serious consequences, as many sensors and devices currently use 32-bit systems to monitor the security and continuity of strategic sectors.
For example, imagine any system that stores drug expiration dates in databases: if we go back to 1901, this could happen, and it would be one of the least harmful scenarios for humanity.
The same applies to any 32-bit Unix-like system, so the solution seems quite clear: a decisive move to 64-bit, which means a maximum deadline beyond 2038.
Almost all computers and mobile devices have moved to a 64-bit architecture, which should not be a cause for concern by 2038, although many devices will still use the previous architecture.
Therefore, the greatest hidden danger lies in those invisible systems, such as programmable logic controllers (PLCs), which are used to ensure safety in industrial processes, from energy to transportation.
Aside from publicly traded companies, many banking systems have not yet been updated, meaning that calculating something as basic as long-term interest could be distorted by 2038.
The solution is simple, because switching to 64-bit will mathematically add a maximum time limit of about 292 billion years; that is, humans will finally solve the problem of measuring machine time.