The Universe is Hostile to Computers

During the May 18, 2003 Belgian election, voting machines with magnetic card backups produced anomalous results in Schaerbeek. Maria Vindevogel received more votes than mathematically possible under the preferential voting system.

• Computer experts tested software extensively but found no bugs • Hardware testing revealed no faults or errors • The computer that made the initial tally appeared to be in perfect working order

The excess votes totaled exactly 4,096, which is 2^12, suggesting a single bit flip in the 13th bit of the binary representation of Vindevogel's vote count.

How could a single bit flip from zero to one in computer memory with no apparent cause or hardware damage?

In the 1970s, Intel reported strange errors in their 16 kilobit DRAM where ones spontaneously flipped to zeros with no apparent cause, marking the first identification of this phenomenon.

• Intel's ceramic packaging contained trace amounts of uranium and thorium from a manufacturing plant located downstream of an old uranium mill • Alpha particles from radioactive materials were energetic enough to ionize silicon • This created electron-hole pairs that could flip stored bits

Investigators exposed chips to alpha emitters with different activity levels and confirmed direct correlation between alpha particle exposure and bit flip frequency.

Before publication, findings were widely circulated in the industry, prompting chip manufacturers to avoid radioactive materials in packaging and production.

• Theodore Wolf used a gold leaf electrometer to measure ionizing radiation and took it to the Eiffel Tower in 1910 • He expected radiation to decrease significantly at 300 meters altitude but found only a slight decrease

In 1911-1912, Austrian physicist Victor Hess conducted seven balloon flights up to 5,200 meters altitude and discovered that radiation levels increased above one kilometer, indicating the radiation came from the sky rather than Earth.

• Approximately 90% are protons, 9% are helium nuclei, and 1% are heavier nuclei • High-energy cosmic rays come from supernovae in our galaxy and others, plus black holes • As charged particles, they're deflected by magnetic fields and can travel billions of years through space

Victor Hess was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1936 for discovering cosmic rays, becoming the first to identify these invisible particles that permeate the universe.

Primary cosmic rays collide with air molecules approximately 25 kilometers above Earth's surface, creating secondary particles like pions that continue cascading downward.

• Secondary collisions and decay produce neutrons, protons, muons, electrons, positrons, and photons • A single primary cosmic ray creates a shower of particles streaming toward Earth • These particles continue colliding with air molecules in a long cascade

A cosmic ray detected on October 15, 1991, called the OMG particle, had energy of 51 joules, equivalent to a baseball traveling at 100 kilometers per hour from a single subatomic particle.

Charles Wilson's cloud chamber technology allowed visualization of cosmic ray paths through ionized gas, leading to discoveries including the positron by Carl Anderson in 1932.

In 2013, speed runner DOTA_Teabag experienced an unexplained up warp onto a higher platform in the Tick Tock Clock level of Super Mario 64, shaving off crucial seconds.

User PenandCook12 offered a $1,000 bounty to replicate the glitch, but after six years no one has been able to reproduce it through normal gameplay.

A single bit flip in Mario's height coordinate byte, changing from 11000101 to 11000001, would have altered his vertical position to coincide perfectly with a higher platform by chance.

PenandCook12 wrote a script to manually flip the specific bit at the right moment and successfully reproduced the identical up warp effect.

• Cosmic rays trigger bit flips constantly in electronic devices • Blue screens of death on computers could be caused by neutrons from cosmic rays • A single event functional interrupt can hang entire processes

In 1996, IBM estimated that for each 256 megabytes of RAM, one bit flip occurs per month, with neutrons created in cosmic ray showers being the main culprit.

• Error correction code (ECC) memory helps prevent bit flip consequences • Total prevention of bit flips is impossible • Los Alamos National Labs uses neutron detectors and frequent auto-saves due to high elevation exposure

In 2009, Toyota recalled millions of vehicles for unintended acceleration; while cosmic rays were initially suspected, NASA investigation identified sticky pedals and driver error as the actual causes.

• At 18,000 feet: 0.5 microsieverts per hour • At 23,000 feet: 1 microsievert per hour • At 33,000 feet (cruising altitude): over 2 microsieverts per hour • At higher altitudes toward poles: over 3 microsieverts per hour

At cruising altitude, the chance of a single event upset increases by 10 to 30 times compared to ground level, creating potential hazards for flight computer systems.

On October 7, 2008, an Airbus A330 from Singapore to Perth suddenly pitched down 200 meters in 20 seconds, then dropped another 120 meters, injuring 119 passengers and crew from impact.

A bit flip in the first eight bits of the ADIRU's 32-bit data word misidentified altitude information as angle of attack, causing simultaneous false stall and overspeed alarms that made the autopilot nose the aircraft down sharply.

• Four identical computers ran simultaneously for navigation and control • If one computer experienced a soft error, the other three could overrule it • This redundancy allowed tracking of cosmic ray hit frequency

During the five-day STS 48 mission, 161 separate bit flips were recorded, demonstrating the frequency of cosmic ray impacts in space above the atmosphere.

Astronauts occasionally see flashes of light with closed eyes caused by heavy particles or radiation bursts passing through the eyeball or optic nerve, a physical reminder of cosmic ray exposure.

• The Perseverance Rover uses a 20-year-old PowerPC processor from 2001 to ensure reliability • The computer is radiation-hardened to withstand 40 times normal radiation • Design, materials, circuits and software are engineered to resist cosmic ray effects

• The heliosphere, maintained by solar wind particles, acts as a protective bubble around the solar system • It helps deflect and slow cosmic rays from interstellar space • The sun has an 11-year activity cycle that causes fluctuations in this protection

The flux of cosmic rays on Earth is much lower when the sun is active than when it's dormant, creating seasonal and cyclical variations in terrestrial radiation exposure.

Throughout Earth's history, cosmic rays may have played a larger role by flipping bits in the genetic codes of living organisms, providing variation for natural selection to act upon.

Maria Vindevogel later became a member of the Belgium Chamber of Representatives, elected by voters rather than particles, symbolizing how cosmic particles can invisibly affect human affairs despite being imperceptible.