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This is an extraordinary essay. I read it on an hour-long bus ride, expecting a history of undersea cabling to put me to sleep. Instead, I devoured it. The his
by adamch 9y ago
This is an extraordinary essay. I read it on an hour-long bus ride, expecting a history of undersea cabling to put me to sleep. Instead, I devoured it.
The history of undersea broadband is the history of human civilization - it requires amazing leaps in technology, in international cooperation, in private-public negotiation. These three forces shaped the 20th century and are going to determine whether we survive the 21st century.
Absolutely essential reading.
- Bromskloss 9y agoI hate to be the low-life slouch here, but is there no _shorter_ version – one that rather just lists the facts than sets a mood? The information density seems so low. I dove eight paragraphs deep without hitting any solid material at all. If there is none, maybe I should one day condense it to its essential points myself.
- pilsetnieks 9y agoIt's basically the story of laying the FLAG cable with heavy digressions. The wikipedia page is enough if you want just the facts (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiber-Optic_Link_Around_the_Globe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiber-Optic_Link_Around_the_Gl...)
- dougmwne 9y agoTLDR: The internet is a series of tubes.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- peterbraden 9y agoBut the essential points aren't the point,in that case you're better off going to an encyclopedia. There's a place for long form content that can't be summarized to a lazy TLDR.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]