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jonathanrdt t1_isyobey wrote

Reply to comment by qichael in The Earth is subjected to a hail of subatomic particles from the Sun and beyond our solar system which could be the cause of glitches that afflict our phones and computers. And the risk is growing as microchip technology shrinks. by Sariel007

“One likely explanation” is not an actual likelihood; that’s someone saying it’s likely.

Odds are still far greater that it was software error.

Edit: This is the source of the 'likelihood' quote. It says the code in the Belgian election system was so bad there was no point in trying to improve or reuse it. The review of the code process is not at all clear, and these were 486 machines in use in 2003. Cosmic ray is a massive stretch.

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qichael t1_iszfdit wrote

that's true, it totally could have been software. however, researchers spent hours combing through the source code of the voting machines and didn't find anything that could be a possible cause for a bit flip at position 13.

either all of them were wrong, or it was a single event upset, and the most probable cause for a single event upset is, you guessed it, a cosmic ray bit flip.

so no, odds are not far greater.

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