For purposes that require looking far into the future or the past we already have ubiquitous 64 bit computers. The goal is to be able to fit the measure of time in 32bits in a standard way even after year 38 to have an alternative to using only 64bit time. 32 bits can only fit so many seconds so the clock must be restarted from time to time. The idea is to have a new 32 bit epoch every 50 years.