How Cosmic Rays Affect Super Mario Speed Runners

[@DrBenMiles]

Maybe we'll see an increasing trend in speed runners co-locating near synchrotrons?

[@californium-2526]

Localize the radiation: Thorium dioxide necklaces/uranium glass/americium-241 smoke detectors. No need for fancy particle accelerators - an alpha particle is enough.

[@nepdisc3722]

they'll have friends wielding atomic rayguns

[@GuyIncognitoOfficial]

Oh perhaps a cosmic ray will flip a bit in a nuclear reactor control station and turn the explode setting from 'no' to 'yes'. That's how it works, right?

[@Dr_Mario2007]

Or for radiation paranoids, try RDRAND to twiggle the data based on random number generation chances, it's pretty close to Uranium in resolution of randomness nature.

[@hullinstruments]

Or buying massive quantities of recycled Soviet smoke detectors.

[@penguinbloopers]

the new meta is to rest a small bag of caesium on your cpu, run the game 10 million times and hope for the best.

[@Starfurexxed]

Alternatively the microwave may just work.

[@jerry3790]

@@Starfurexxed microwaves are non ionising sadly

[@Starfurexxed]

@@jerry3790 at least the console will make lightning while being microwaved!

[@ImXyper]

@@Starfurexxed hehe cool lights

[@PixalonGC]

You might expect an optimal cycle of 256 trillion light-years and get an unbeatable world record.

[@penguinbloopers]

alright so for this part of the speedrun you're gonna need to meticulously guide an alpha particle to a very specific transistor on your machine at this precise moment can flip a bit...

[@PixalonGC]

New strats being developed using cosmic rays from outer space.

[@Me-zo8yc]

😂😂😂

[@Choco____1]

@@PixalonGC I wouldn't put it past SM64 runners considering they use parallel universes in TASes already.

[@MegaInquisitor]

Not the most difficult speed running technique…

[@meinkek7896]

Speedrunner community have done harder

[@ครยฬร]

This is the most rng based speedrun glitch ever

[@sythrus]

Well... it technically isn't a glitch... not sure how they handle it though if it does happen.

[@MegaManXPoweredUp]

RNGesus gave the rarest blessing of all time.

[@999maza]

@@sythrus One bit of code being wrong is absolutely a glitch, there's just no way to replicate it

[@TheFugles]

Imagine if the rest of the run was perfect. He could have had a record that might have been unbeatable

[@Nyah420]

They'd have to create a new category for that speedrun. "Sunray%" or something so non-sunray-enhanced speedruns still have a reason to exist.

[@idiot1902]

@@Nyah420 is that you in the pfp wanna make babies

[@Periwinkleaccount]

It would probably be rejected due to the fact that the cause wasn’t exactly something related to the actual game’s code and would be such an unreliable glitch that it would be very unfair.

[@sxmbxdy]

@@Periwinkleaccount ☝️🤓

[@Periwinkleaccount]

@@sxmbxdy we’re talking about cosmic rays causing unexpected bit flips. Nobody’s the nerd here. Also, why did you reply to me with that? To waste my time?

[@Bundle_Exists]

Sun rays travelling millions of miles just to hit some Mario 64 cartridge, making a community go mad for years:

[@xAdrianHGx]

Our universe truly is full of wonders beyond our comprehension, where a single event can cause a domino effect and completely change the direction of our timeline

[@blueamongusvids]

Don't forget that chance is like 1/10000000000 or something

[@firestar1230]

I love the idea of a future or current farmer driving a really advanced machine in the fields and this happening that just casually sends it into a ditch and the farmer just jumping out angrily yelling “goddamn cosmic rays! Stupid alpha particles”

[@ulysses847]

LMFAOO

[@greyshopleskin2315]

Nah, there are ECC RAMs wich can detect and fix this errors. There are a lot of Linux servers which runs for years without restarting. That's impossible with normal RAMs

[@snekback.]

Most cpus are shielded from cosmic rays nowadays

[@Houshalter]

​@@greyshopleskin2315everything should use ECC memory for this reason, but very few things do. Engineers don't think it will ever happen so don't worry about it.

[@RobKaiser_SQuest]

I'm a farmer and had to deal with a steering lock-up due to electrical problems a couple years ago, much better a total fluke than a mouse chew honestly 😂

[@adrienbrody6778]

Mf’s really look at cosmic rays and go “this will affect my super Mario 64 run”

[@FunnyFany]

I too saw that post.

[@f3rn4n2x3str3ll4]

one of my first programming professors hinted/suggested to us to not just check when an indexing variable reached a given exact value, but to also check if it had taken ANY OTHER HIGHER value, in case a cosmic ray had graced us

[@ABoxIsMyHome]

At that point there is so many other things to worry about before that if security is a problem

[@Yotanido]

I do that, but not for any reason other than it makes semantically more sense. If the index variable ever goes way above what it should, I still want to stop iteration or whatever. The fact that it is actually impossible to reach that is irrelevant, I look at the condition in isolation.

[@OwenWithAHammer]

If only my credit card debt could get upset by a cosmic ray :') Loved the video, hadn't considered that as an explanation for the glitch. I wonder if playing on a tall mountain could allow it to be reproduced more reliably.

[@DrBenMiles]

If only! More time at altitude should definitely help. I guess there's equal chance it could make it go up or down though 🤔

[@jamesflanagan6977]

There is certainly enough redundancy in your bank's system that a bit flip is not significant

[@adrycough]

*debt increases*

[@kellymoses8566]

Computers that handle money are designed to repair these errors

[@kellymoses8566]

It would be equally likely to increase as decrease

[@d-boi9785]

Imagine being a solar particle literally flying through the entire solar system just to land in some random guy’s n64

[@theotherjared9824]

All speedrunners now need a doctorate in astrophysics before being invited to GDQ.

[@iloveplasticbottles]

Basically a transistor in their device got no-scoped by outer space.

[@Flexy59]

and we're still waiting for the final killcam to reach us

[@connarcomstock161]

This is unironically enough of a problem that the DDR4 memory spec actually includes error correction even for Non-ECC memory, due to how high the density is and how small the memory cells are. It's also why you can get what's called "bit rot" on any drive, SSD or spinners, and why most modern storage arrays no longer use RAID but ZFS, which goes through and actively checksums.

[@mynameisnothere9465]

This was the first video (the original bounty video for this) that REALLY got me into speedrunning fully. I have no idea how coding stuff works, it is all gibberish to me so it's even more mystical lol. Now I'm obsessed with the speedrunning community, but from the outskirts. On my bucket list is to one day find a glitch that helps speedrunners greatly!

[@lewismax4056]

We need a new cosmic interception % speedrun category

[@cedrickassen2671]

As youtube starts recommending this again, I too want to say: No, the Mario 64 Community never believed it was cosmic rays and this theory is absolute bs. The console this happened on is confirmed to be a bit defective

[@Dr_Mario2007]

It's no longer a big deal nowadays, as some 32-bit microcontrollers have ECC in their L1 cache RAM so cache-bound SEU (single event upset) is less likely, but still like the PCs we buy or build, the MCUs are still vulnerable via the external RAM memory chips which is not always equipped for in the flight ECC while it's now a requirement via DDR5 specification. x86 processors also have the same cache RAM protection in all levels of caches to prevent garbage data due to radiation.

[@Kriss352]

For the Belgian election of 2003 : is it due to chance that exactly 4096 electors were added ? 4096 being a power of two (4096 bits = 512 bytes), and as we know computers calculate in base 2 ?

[@isaacmiller5688]

Yes and no, it randomly hit the bit that represented 4096. The vote tally was almost definitely represented by a 32 but integer, and the 13th bit of that integer represents 4096. So, when it hit that 13th bit, it increased the entire number by 4096. If it had hit a bit that was currently on, I believe it would have turned that bit off, decreasing the amount by that bit. But yes, any one cosmic ray affecting an integer value will increase/decrease it by a power of 2. Which power of 2 that is is up to chance

[@SuperWiiBros08]

no it didn't

[@ammoniahuffers]

SOOO. I will bring my laptop to the edge of space, so when I speedrun minecraft, cosmic ray will hit my computer and teleport me to the end then make ender dragon health only 9.

[@crinklefry6083]

In theory, yes. That's possible. Although you probably would need multiple particals to do that. And you would need the most ridiculous luck imaginable.

[@ammoniahuffers]

@@crinklefry6083 Haha you are right! Imagine you spend 5.000.000 dollars on a 1 hour trip at the edge of space then speedrun Minecraft. No Wi-fi at all so no stream. Fun fact for you: if that amount of cosmic ray hit my laptop, the first thing it does is BSOD my laptop then destroy my HDD/SSD.

[@smpark12]

@@crinklefry6083 just drink a potion of luck

[@Hlebuw3k]

There's BILLIONS of memory bits in the memory on modern PCs and laptops, and memory correction that try to prevent this, so multiple rays would have to hit specific parts of the memory, which reduces the chances even further. And if it his the wrong bits, it might just crash your game or computer instead, so its highly unviable as a speedrun technique. It would be *really* funny though.

[@benjaminmargulies1853]

and spawn a pokemon with a gender that is otherwise impossible to obtain

[@MrPrinzStar]

imaging you being a cosmic star that exploded so you can help a guy with his mario 64 speedrun lol

[@xAdrianHGx]

The death was not in vain, the star fulfilled its purpose.

[@txorimorea3869]

This is why ECC memory should be the norm everywhere. Make it so ubiquitous that ECC will become cheaper to acquire, so there will be no pieces of shit using non ECC memory to save costs in equipment where that kind of errors can cause loss of life.

[@clerothsun3933]

Most servers and important computers are already using ECC. The problem with ECC isn't really the cost, but CPU support. Intel (and probably AMD too) doesn't want to put ECC everywhere because they want to segmentate server and consumer markets.

[@hrino94]

@@clerothsun3933 AMD RYZEN consumer-tier CPUs do support ECC IIRC

[@aninditabasak7694]

DDR5 memory supports a form of on die ECC algorithm.

[@VestedUTuber]

@@hrino94 Some of them, anyway. I know the Ryzen Threadripper series does, but only if the motherboard does as well. And while it supports the tech it doesn't support ECC-specific DIMMs, they still have to be DDR4 or DDR5.

[@MeowModeFGC]

Imagine you get this to happen in a world record speedrun. Now the category is dead and the only way to beat the record is to get a cosmic ray to influence your setup 😂

[@quickdraw6893]

Speedrunners would start putting radioactive material next to their device, they're just that insane

[@SforSamPlays]

@@quickdraw6893 I know you’re joking, but leaderboard mods would not allow it as a run would have to be able to be replicated. Speedrunning is a community that survives from learning from each other, and rewarding them from learning and adapting others strategies. Which single event upsets completely defeats.

[@YourBoss_CORP]

The changes of this occurring are so incredibly slim that actually living this event would probably be a mark for your whole life. Funny thing to think about is: This could have actually happened some time before and the person didn't notice, or sometime when no one was seeing or recording, so we are absolutely blind about it and will never find out that this certain event happened.

[@ziemlichundead]

Probably a single event upset - Me, when my code has a bug

[@kl6336]

veritasium needed 20 minutes to sat this. Thanks for the shortsr version

[@Pixaurora]

the issue with the cosmic ray thing is that the speed runner's hardware was damaged, so much in fact that it was discovered this was probably just a console/cartridge malfunction rather than cosmic rays

[@arislanbekkosnazarov9644]

I have an inkling that Veritasium’s video on the same subject but released 16 days later was heavily inspired by this video. Both videos bring up Mario speedrun, a poll and airplane nosedive

[@moosewhisker8072]

I’m pretty sure it takes Veritasium more than 16 days to make a video. Most likely it’s just a coincidence of 2 people making similar videos at the same time independently.

[@arislanbekkosnazarov9644]

@@moosewhisker8072 Maybe, but if you compare the videos, it is as if Veritasium straight up copied the video but just made it with a higher production value and more immersive narrative

[@Lh0000]

@@arislanbekkosnazarov9644 Year old, but honestly it’s more likely that these 3 events are just some of the most noteworthy times this type of thing has happened, two videos are bound to be very similar if they both only really have the same 3 things to talk about.

[@arislanbekkosnazarov9644]

@@Lh0000 it is just that Veritasium’s content output has notably increased so I thought maybe he had something scribbled here and there but once he saw this video he immediately started worked on his own

[@thesmartstory7525]

Very informative, thanks a lot! Interesting topic as well!

[@exscape]

Wait... So airplane computers don't use ECC? Otherwise a single-event upset wouldn't be able to cause a problem like that. ECC should also be used for election data.

[@penguinbloopers]

I imagine airplanes are at higher risk of such an event because at higher altitudes there is less atmosphere between the computer and the cosmos, and as a result more radiation. plus a lot more resources go into airline safety than an election computer.

[@exscape]

@@penguinbloopers Yes,exactly, which why I'm surprised they're not protected. Or, rather, I still assume they are and that something happened that ECC couldn't detect. (Such as a cosmic ray hit inside a CPU, and not inside the memory controller.)

[@GazahSCD]

This was explained in Veritasiums video. He explained that the plane was an older model of aircraft from around the 90s. At the time, technology was kind of in a cross-over stage where hardware only recently crossed the stage where smaller transistors were more likely to have a SEU. This instance like in many other fields became a case study in additional protection against these events.

[@clerothsun3933]

"Wait, so in hindsight I'm smarter than everyone else?"

[@exscape]

@@clerothsun3933 It's not about hindsight. NASA used redundant computer in the 60s, and Airbus/Boeing uses major redundancy for the systems in their planes, including the one in this video. They would've known the computer is a single point of failure even with multiple sensor inputs, hence it's weird they didn't use ECC to help correct for that.

[@EazyFree]

Amazing video. This was just what I was looking for.

[@hydraman007]

That moment when you're about to go clean and admit your trick, somebody says "must have been a space ray", and everybody believes it :,)

[@foppypoof5195]

It’s true though, it’s actually a phenomenon my guy, lmao

[@hydraman007]

@@foppypoof5195 Sure it is. Tell me when you and I can use it as an excuse though? - Teacher, I did this assignment, but a space ray hit my computer, and my assignment vanished. - A space ray you say! Full marks for you young man!

[@foppypoof5195]

@@hydraman007 It’s impossible to use it as an excuse, yeah, but there is proof of it being rays here.

[@hydraman007]

@@foppypoof5195 how come these guys can use it as an excuse though?

[@foppypoof5195]

@@hydraman007 Because there’s evidence of it. They ran tests.

[@JuliusUnique]

great video! interesting topic, nice and short, love it

[@DrBenMiles]

Thanks man! 👍

[@theohobo]

How Cosmic Rays work in fiction: gives Fantastic 4 powers How Cosmic Rays actually work: flips a singular integer in a video game

[@intellectualiconoclasm3264]

Thank you, this was very enjoyable to this gamer and former satcom guy. Thanks and cheers mate.

[@yourlocaltoad5102]

This was probably the most interesting video I have seen in at least a year.

[@KelMurphy]

Flipping a bit accidentally can happen due to various reasons, not just cosmic rays. Here are a few: Electromagnetic Interference (EMI): Strong electromagnetic fields from nearby electronic devices can mess with your bits. Radiofrequency Interference (RFI): Signals from radios, Wi-Fi, or other wireless devices can interfere with electronic systems. Power Surges: Sudden increases in electrical voltage, like during a power surge, can lead to unintentional bit flips. Heat Issues: Overheating can cause electrical components to behave unexpectedly, potentially leading to bit errors. Manufacturing Defects: Tiny flaws in the manufacturing process could make some bits more susceptible to flipping. Aging Components: Over time, electronic components can degrade, making them more prone to errors.

[@soulbeats135]

A friend told me about this while skiing thats crazy

[@6secondsremain]

I don’t see anyone correcting this video so I will We don’t know what exactly happened. this was a theory but so rare everyone on the case agreed that it was most likely not that and we found out things like the cartridge had to be shoved in the slot for it to work which is the most likely but the gamers (a game news outlet online) said it was the cosmic rays and other articles came about this making the theory gain popularity and the general consensus even though we mostly likely found the answer If you see a video about this theory saying that’s what happened copy this so people know the truth

[@MikooOnYoutube]

Computer engineer here-cosmic rays are common enough that they're actually pretty likely to have caused the bit flip. We don't see modern hardware being affected by them because of ECC memory becoming standard, but it's a very real concern in computer engineering. The video you watched was poorly researched, and relied on testimonies from speedrunners in the community, not scientists. There's a reason physicists haven't questioned the cosmic ray theory when it's brought up, because cosmic rays are _constantly_ causing bitflips around the world.

[@6secondsremain]

@@MikooOnKZbin true but someone tested it and when a bit gets flipped it did a different upwarp though, and they used a program to do his exact movement and added that bit flip and even it all was the same, the upwarp was different

[@6secondsremain]

@@MikooOnKZbin also if you want more proof watch the video “The biggest myth in speedrunning history” it shows why it’s most likely not that

[@Релёкс84]

​@@MikooOnKZbinThere is no evidence for cosmic rays actually causing a similar thing, let alone this specific event. Being an engineer gives you no particular authority, though I salute the attempt.

[@MikooOnYoutube]

@@Релёкс84 I have worked with machines on earth that are shielded against cosmic rays and have advanced error correcting memory for this exact purpose. When I was interning at AMD, there was lots of talk about physics that average users don't consider from quantum tunneling to bit flips, because they're expected occurances for computer systems nowadays. Bitflips happen all the time, and shielding is vital for important systems. Veritasium has an excellent video on it.

[@Video-Game-OST-HQ]

0:47 Hey, that’s MHS in the upper-right corner. A tool written by…me! It’s-a me, L. Spiro!

[@pingu6338]

Its like when you found a penny at the side of the road and you say thank you to a random Chinese guy on the other side of the world for sharing a gene with a guy who first invented coins

[@Hlebuw3k]

When I had a faulty RAM stick, one of the games I played used to really glitch out in some parts, so I could walk through a locked door and get somewhere I was not supposed to yet. I also got completely randomly teleported across the map on 3 separate times.

[@ixiwarlockixi2665]

Does this mean it's possible for any random nuclear weapon to go off because of some random space piss?

[@_GOD_HAND_]

No

[@gabrieldarcy1744]

Way too many redundancies. They'd have plenty of backup computers and mechanical switches which can't be bitflipped

[@geirtwo]

That is probably the sentiment they were going for

[@IXInfuseXI]

Miss watching Dota Teabag. If I remember right, he usually streamed from his apartment which didn't appear to be on the first floor. Wonder if playing at a higher altitude affected the chances of this happening more.

[@NOISETVOFFIClAL]

Today I will be speedrunning mario 64 on the international space station

[@projectkepleren]

@@NOISETVOFFIClAL Yes

[@MinusNC]

ive heard somewhere that the higher the altitude you are at, the higher the chances. so yes

[@marioe.4400]

Is this the new "it wasn't me, the dog farted"?

[@sayori3939]

Yeah probably

[@sayori3939]

They'll probably blame Chernobyl for the new Speedruns

[@marioe.4400]

@@sayori3939 Blame Chernobyl - For failed attempts at Tetris world records and Metro speedruns; Blame Fukushima - For Super Mario 64. "Japanese video-games made from 2011 onward have specific bit rot that randomizes the chances of attaining a successful speedrun". "In certain titles such as Demon and Dark Souls, it has the opposite effect: Enemies can become smarter due to the 0's and 1's in the binary code getting arranged in a way not intended by the devs. In critical cases, the A.I can take over not only the game logic, but the console itself, leading to the infamous *alleged* murders in the evening of 21st of December, 2012." "A teen, going by the gamertag "TakeThemInTheKnee" was found in his room as a pile of ash, due to exposure to extremely high levels of radiation, coming from (then) unknown origins. This as lead many to speculate the implications behind the 'Single-Event Upset', caused by cosmic rays. It's still uncertain whether a dedicated category will be created or even accepted by the gaming community."

[@sayori3939]

@@marioe.4400 yeah to me that seems like a lot of bs, every eletronic has a probability of failing be a hardware issue or software issue nothing is perfect and they only consider the most improbable thing ever that is the definition of TOO much luck, how come a cosmic ray, a random one hit the exact place, go through all solid objects and change the exact but the exact bit from all trillions of bits, change the one that makes the player jump this is pure bs

[@sayori3939]

@@marioe.4400 hehehe

[@spartanark1417]

Single sun particle make Mario go "wahoo" but higher. Got it.

[@froulouxio]

the way analysis of this game has been brought to a near molecular level is nothing short of astonishing.

[@RoganzenMckeown]

It could have just been a hardware bug

[@The_Dim_Vanced]

I was here before the disclaimer (if he hopefully adds one)

[@damianperdomo4478]

About a 4 minutes video but it felt like 10, good shit

[@AkiiiiDesu]

I remember during one of my maths exams my calculator started freaking out and adding 0.15 to all of my answers idk what caused this but it made me fail my paper and not get into my uni of choice it could’ve been this? I didn’t notice this happening until there was not much time left in the exam and was unable to correct this

[@8xtremest8ers59]

Came after searching this topic from vertasium :)

[@gustavogcoelho182]

Imagine having to tell your boss that the reason you lost an incredibly important file is: Sun did the funny

[@emelyarye2641]

Vertasium straight copied u lmao

[@fungo6631]

This is also why ECC memory exists.

[@renatocorvaro6924]

Coding is magic so it makes sense that speedruns can be affected by space magic.

[@Cosmid_]

Guys is divine intervention allowed in speedrunning?

[@BudgetCat164]

Today a cosmic ray could have messed up the code while I was configuring stuff and swapped the configure with another of the same thing

[@dusanmeseldzija3882]

The hell do you mean "cosmic rays"? That sounds stupid. There's no way that's real.

[@Subscribebuttonsmasher117]

Its most likley his n64 or the game was damaged

[@nonsensecrusade2741]

How do we KNOW that’s what it was? It just seems like they couldn’t get the glitch to work and gave up...

[@Noorthia]

because it's the exact result you get when you flip a single bit?

[@officialgreenhero1435]

the bit flip was tested with hacks and was proven as a likely event, but the cosmic ray thing was made up.

[@netlegendstube]

Absolutely amazing video.

[@donkhuzy2897]

Wow, mario is on a different level

[@speedytruck]

That's why we need ECC memory to be more common...

[@mairoberts1247]

playing mario next to the demon core to maximize chances

[@glennski]

Dear universe, please make this happen to my bank account

[@foppypoof5195]

Unfortunately, with the way bank systems work, it can’t.

[@afdashtech5322]

Nice video

[@lynx4082]

Random twitter post lead me here, thanks for the explanation

[@Dumb-Comment]

new thing to blame on when i die to lag in a shooter

[@christiank7128]

That was really interesting thank you 😊

[@officialgreenhero1435]

And don’t believe it

[@postplays]

HD cameras were a mistake.

[@JuanPretorius]

how could we check the space weather if the particles travel close to the speed of light :(

[@АртёмЗайчик-д3в]

Imagine, as a speedrunner, being disqualified for THAT.

[@joeybowyer7222]

Here’s a question, can you even call it a legitimate run at all since you could consider that an outside contributing factor? I don’t know the rules so I’m curious

[@falcon8922]

Unless you could chalk up Cosmic Ray's to being magically controlled exploits or cheats which you definitely have control over, then I'd say it counts

[@Hlebuw3k]

I bet they would make another category for the speedruns called "Cosmic Ray-less%"

[@voidAsteraceae]

this video game may contain unsafe quantities of cosmic ray spallation elements

[@dynamite2275]

time to move to the iss so i get a chance of a world record

[@Phoenix2.5D]

A random cosmic ray traveling for millions of years at the universal speed limit so that it can bug out this single speedrunner's game

[@stevenpeay923]

You wanna know how cosmic rays affect gamers? THEY FUCKING DON'T

[@VestedUTuber]

If you're referring to that video that claims to "disprove" the theory that a cosmic ray caused the bit-flip, it got debunked HARD by multiple computer hardware engineers.

[@Yatezylad]

'The most likely explanation was a cosmic ray' is not a sentence I thought I would ever hear

[@lennysela2092]

How to do the glitch: Be extremely lucky and have cosmic radiation flip a zero to a one

[@zippersnstitches9009]

Imagine if bro had his curtains closed

[@Liscome]

This happened to me playing Conra on the mini Snes. I didnt know what happened until I saw rhis video

[@UltraCenterHQ]

Mario 64 Speedrunners will do anything at this point

[@engineeredaf1920]

i came from your veritaseum video. did he straight up knock off this entire video? or do you guys somehow work together? he released his 2 weeks after

[@Cuarentaydos]

I think they might both have been inspired by the RadioLab Podcast "Bit Flip"

[@engineeredaf1920]

@@Cuarentaydos could be, but looks like thats over 2 years old. the timing is just very suspect imo

[@matthiaskossidowski2651]

ahahahaa niiiiice. Thats the kind of stuff i am looking for . Good work

[@ep5659]

If you think about how many transistors exist on the planet (trillions in a modern computer with an SSD) and how many computers and smart devices exist, there are probably tens of trillions of transistors for every one time a single event upset has been documented. However, I realize single event upsets could very well occur much more frequently without being known about. For example, if one happened on an SSD and corrupted a file, the user might just shrug it off. What's odd about this though is older ICs tend not to be as sensitive to cosmic rays/radiation. If you look at radiation-hardened CPUs, they are much older technology. The larger transistors in older chips are much harder to disturb than a transistor that may only be a few dozen atoms across. So, newer chips and technology are much more prone to interference from radiation. It's amusing to think that if you keep a banana near your computer, you would be more at risk of a single event upset being cause by a beta particle emitted from the radioactive potassium-40 which is naturally in bananas, or anything with a lot of potassium.

[@LuigiCotocea]

There was a sun flare and my pc bsod and strangely i turned on my new laptop and guess what bsod, it has stopped since then. Wierd to happen on an new laptop?

[@stripes9386]

Do we have any way of shielding agains this? What if this had happened in a piece of medical equipment or military hardware?

[@q12aw50]

Those are designed with a LOOOOT more protection than an N64

[@Lunar1fy]

man i hope a cosmic ray conmes out of nowhere right now to change all of my grades to 100%

[@theoriginaldrdust]

imagine if that star never radiated that particle…

[@l.farmer1268]

Thank you

[@XenonSlayer]

2:28 I look forward to the Black Box Down episode of that event...

[@bacon-boy8177]

Space getting a bit more interesting against compepeters

[@ericBorja520]

This is why redundancy in systems is important!

[@SeanWMODonnell]

Knowing that we're going into solar minimum and cosmic rays will increase....

[@chef4025]

That is unreasonably ridiculous. There’s no way that happened

[@Fritz9672]

But it did, multiple times.

[@blamethefranchise1473]

@@Fritz9672 no it didnt, it was never concluded what it was that actually happened. The cosmic ray theory is just something somebody pulled out their ass, and a console failure is a billion times more likely

[@Fritz9672]

@@blamethefranchise1473 For some reason I don't believe you

[@blamethefranchise1473]

@@Fritz9672 mate just go look up pannenkoek's video on comparing the two videos of a manual bitflip vs the actual video where this all started. In the description he literally says the cosmic ray theory is wrong. It all started from people just pulling it out their ass cause it sounds outlandish

[@tyler2010]

Great now I can blame every tech issue I have on cosmic rays

[@T7LI]

It's weird.. I've seen this exact video before, but I'm pretty sure it was animated

[@roshanjoe1518]

did veritasium copy you

[@KaiWolf18]

Looks like it

[@Jay-iw9rz]

Both videos seem to follow almost the same format and content of a SciShow video from 3 years ago

[@daverapp]

Calling Pannen a speed runner is a bit like calling Neil Armstrong a skydiving enthusiast.