Amongst my friends who are non-tech people it is a common belief that Y2K was a big scam, and that it all just went away when the calendar turned. I have to point out over and over again that it all “went away” because organizations spent billions of dollars modernizing their software (which was motivated by, but not limited to, addressing Y2K, we'll never know what the total cost of that was).
I expect the same, but worse, in 2038.
A lot of the gizmos mentioned like android phones and routers get replaced far more often than the 13 years remaining. I'm trying to think what I've got that might pack up. Possibly the 2010 merc which does download the time, although I'd hope they thought about that in 2010.
I just don’t think we’re going to do anything as a collective to handle this and it’s going to suck.
It's going to be wild with modern tech of 2038 but such an old school problem.
I 100% think it will be a problem and will probably create a lot of jobs just like y2k fixing did... assuming jobs are still a thing.
Except y2k created jobs to prevent the death and destruction. This will create jobs like a hurricane does.
Why would this be any different than y2k?
Because the work to prevent y2k started long before y2k and was all about centralized systems. This is about millions or even billions of embedded systems all over the world. No one is going to send someone to replace the control units in your car.