well a calendar is much different than the internal "tick-tock" that is counting down rather than counting "continuance" so-to-speak.
"Calendrical" countdowns don't really exist either. The mayan (as well as other mathematical calendars) simply doesn't end. Going out of sync is likely . Reset may be necessary. Basing a calender on heavenly bodies moving is pretty exacting. Cogs within cogs...and all that...like clockwork gears. 2012 isn't actually the end of anything. Just a herald ...to a new tick-tock-ing. 'tween 2012 and 202? (can't recall exact year) allll the ancient mathematical calendars end (for reset and recalibration). What the new tick-tock will be and how conducive to human interests is another thing. Ages come and go...Cycles come around. More interesting is how the clock will chime...won't carry on with talk of gnostic studies ...I'd fill pages.
Silly calendars are like the gregorian(was it? can't remem.) which came before the julian (current) it was a mess...changing to the Julian had people believing they had lost a huge chunk of time from their lives....the riots were silly...lasted a long time throughout Europe. The Julian makes sense since it accommodates the leap year...no extra or lack of days in a year...(even still the Julian although perfect as perfect can be...is running out of sync with the natural cycle of the seasons now...)
The silliness of the internal unix countdown is a wee bit more interesting though. Since it really wasn't built with a deliberate ability to "tweak" it or recalibrate, reset, whatever. Awfully silly really. And it is more of a "tock-tick" than a "tick-tock" counting down rather than counting up...
I'm sure someone will find a solution..failing that I doubt it will throw the world into ruins... credit card debt restructuring may possibly be needed...alot of people out there may end up owing a lot more money afterwards.