It sounds like the problem being described is not that Unix epoch starts in 1970 but rather that it's 32 bit. Perhaps there is a way to make this 64 bits and maintain some backwards compatibility? I am not a proper developer so perhaps someone could postulate whether or not this would be feasible.
[Edit] Answering my own question it appears some systems have already addressed this by moving to 64 bit time [1] thus kicking the can down the road 292 billion years in both directions.
[1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix_time
