The joke, such as it is, is clarified by what follows:
Back in 2012, I had not yet been born (I am, in fact, only six years old). But I am a student of history.
How does that clarify - because the student of history thing indicates now he will need to give us some background of things that happened a long time ago. Of course it didn't happen a long time ago, only 6 years ago, but there is the concept of internet time going faster than normal time. In fact it seems a really long time ago to anyone paying attention that Cook had to apologize - oh remember when that happened.
So he makes a joke that gives us a light feel and that also points out in a roundabout way hey it feels a long time ago but was only 6 years but bringing it up seems like ancient history without having to directly reference the hoary old trope that internet time is happening so fast that 6 years feels like ancient history man!
Anyway, often people writing things, especially if they have a deadline by which they wish to be finished, and especially in our modern era when there is not enough editing (remember editors, boy internet time really wiped out that species!) end up writing things that are allowed to remain in the article even if they are significantly less successful than other things.
Of course you can have standalone jokes, but “I’m six years old” is not one.
Anyway, I think that is a lot more likely than some obscure cultural reference that we’re expected to parse in the middle of musing about digital mapping.