What does running out of IP addresses mean to you?

Have you ever thought about how many IP addresses exist, and what you would do if the world ran out of them? Me either. Thankfully, others have and with the rapid increase of internet capable devices we should be thankful for the foresight. Now we don't have to worry that our next internet capable gadget won't be able to connect. 

How will this effect you? An interview on NPR explains.  

BLOCK: So, the transition from IPV4 to IPV6, are you anticipating that that will be pretty smooth or are there lots of potential complications there?

Mr. SHANKLAND: I think it's going to be more in the area of hiccups and some unpleasantness, than catastrophe. That's why I think the word IPocalypse is a bit overblown. A lot of money is going to have to be spent, but I don't think the Internet is going to come to a screeching halt, for example.
Websites will get slow in some cases because when you're trying to get data from some server on the other side of the Internet, the data might have to get translated from IPV4 to IPV6 and then back to IPV4. That has to happen every time a little packet of information goes from one place to another.
So I think we'll see some delays in the performance of the Internet as we make this gradual transition from IPV4 to IPV6. 

Read the transcript or listen to the interview.