6 ms·

I’ve blown a few minds explaining that the Internet is delivered via light, sent through very long fiber optic cables under the sea. I thought this was common

I’ve blown a few minds explaining that the Internet is delivered via light, sent through very long fiber optic cables under the sea. I thought this was common knowledge until the first time I explained it, and the disbelief... Everyone had a revelation that day. I always knew about fiber optics, growing up with dial up and dreaming of one day having a fiber connection. But I guess now that everyone is focused on mobile that piece of infrastructure is abstracted from even reasonably tech savvy people.

stingraycharles 8y ago
How did they think it was done before you explained it to them?
- profmonocle 8y ago
  I’ve met quite a few non technical people who assume the Internet is carried by satellite.
  - antjanus 8y ago
    that was my own assumption until I learned about the under sea cables.
  - closeparen 8y ago
    I distinctly remember "learning" this in K12, before getting deeper into the technology industry. One of our textbooks had a diagram with lines showing signals flowing from continent to satellite to continent. It wasn't until I got deeper into the industry that I learned satellite latency is awful, bandwidth is limited, and everyone uses cables or microwave point-to-point links when they can. (Actually, the role of those point-to-point links is drastically undersold for how ubiquitous they are in our cities. Worked with some Ubiquiti gear professionally once, and now notice them everywhere).
  - cbg0 8y ago
    It's actually a very reasonable assumption, as most people don't really know about the limits of fiber, but they do own mobile phones which seem to work almost wherever they are thanks to wireless technology.
    - ekianjo 8y ago
      It's not reasonable once you consider the bandwidth of satellites.
      - Moru 8y ago
        And the delay
      - kiallmacinnes 8y ago
        "Normal" people don't know that kinda stuff.. Let's be honest, they make many of their assumptions from TV and Movies - and often those disaster movies focus on the world grinding to a halt because "the satellite network is down" (I do the same with other industries!)
  - therealmarv 8y ago
    Depends where you are located... e.g. for cook islands this is the reality till they also get their own fibre optics in mid 2020.
- libraryofbabel 8y ago
  I asked this question to a class of smart 18-19 yo college students a few years ago. Almost everyone thought it was done with some kind of wireless transmission (e.g. "by satellite"). The idea that it was physical cables lying in the mud of the sea bed was a revelation.
  - masonic 8y ago
    Did they speculate about how it was done before fiber optics?
    - dotancohen 8y ago
      I'm sure that Marcono would like their answer as well.
joering2 8y ago
I recently visited friend at his lab. I cannot say much but they work on patent for something he calls “pantone fiber”. Basically within one cable they are able to squeeze about 16,000 different shades of R/G/B “working” next to each other. When I grasp the idea it blew my mind - he looked at me and smiled saying - “yeah about 10,000 times faster than current fiber”. He said two things tho - one state of tech is not ready for such speeds and latency - unlesn you have 16K def TV. Second he said they wont release it until much more cable has been layed out. So that of course they can restart relaying new cable again and make more $ ;)
- akg_67 8y ago
  Did your friend say 10,000 times faster or 10,000 times bandwidth? By using different color simultaneously , you can stuff more data but I can’t imagine it becoming faster than speed of light it already travels at.
  - eastdakota 8y ago
    For a bit, yes. For N bits, more bandwidth means more effective speed.
    - swombat 8y ago
      Well, no, not unless you define speed as “bandwidth”. If it takes 1ms for the 1 bit to get to the other side, it’s still going to take 1ms for N bits to get to the other side, even N-multiplexed. It’s the bandwidth that’s improved with multiplexing.
      - stingraycharles 8y ago
        While you're technically correct, isn't it pretty much an accepted fact that when people refer to the "speed" of internet, they are actually talking about bandwidth? E.g. "how fast is your internet", etc. It's of little value to the end user to know how fast a bit travels, all they care about is how fast they can download.
jve 8y ago
https://xkcd.com/1053/ https://xkcd.com/1053/

stingraycharles 8y ago

How did they think it was done before you explained it to them?

profmonocle 8y ago
I’ve met quite a few non technical people who assume the Internet is carried by satellite.
- antjanus 8y ago
  that was my own assumption until I learned about the under sea cables.
- closeparen 8y ago
  I distinctly remember "learning" this in K12, before getting deeper into the technology industry. One of our textbooks had a diagram with lines showing signals flowing from continent to satellite to continent. It wasn't until I got deeper into the industry that I learned satellite latency is awful, bandwidth is limited, and everyone uses cables or microwave point-to-point links when they can. (Actually, the role of those point-to-point links is drastically undersold for how ubiquitous they are in our cities. Worked with some Ubiquiti gear professionally once, and now notice them everywhere).
- cbg0 8y ago
  It's actually a very reasonable assumption, as most people don't really know about the limits of fiber, but they do own mobile phones which seem to work almost wherever they are thanks to wireless technology.
  - ekianjo 8y ago
    It's not reasonable once you consider the bandwidth of satellites.
    - Moru 8y ago
      And the delay
    - kiallmacinnes 8y ago
      "Normal" people don't know that kinda stuff.. Let's be honest, they make many of their assumptions from TV and Movies - and often those disaster movies focus on the world grinding to a halt because "the satellite network is down" (I do the same with other industries!)
- therealmarv 8y ago
  Depends where you are located... e.g. for cook islands this is the reality till they also get their own fibre optics in mid 2020.
libraryofbabel 8y ago
I asked this question to a class of smart 18-19 yo college students a few years ago. Almost everyone thought it was done with some kind of wireless transmission (e.g. "by satellite"). The idea that it was physical cables lying in the mud of the sea bed was a revelation.
- masonic 8y ago
  Did they speculate about how it was done before fiber optics?
  - dotancohen 8y ago
    I'm sure that Marcono would like their answer as well.

joering2 8y ago

I recently visited friend at his lab. I cannot say much but they work on patent for something he calls “pantone fiber”. Basically within one cable they are able to squeeze about 16,000 different shades of R/G/B “working” next to each other. When I grasp the idea it blew my mind - he looked at me and smiled saying - “yeah about 10,000 times faster than current fiber”. He said two things tho - one state of tech is not ready for such speeds and latency - unlesn you have 16K def TV. Second he said they wont release it until much more cable has been layed out. So that of course they can restart relaying new cable again and make more $ ;)

akg_67 8y ago
Did your friend say 10,000 times faster or 10,000 times bandwidth? By using different color simultaneously , you can stuff more data but I can’t imagine it becoming faster than speed of light it already travels at.
- eastdakota 8y ago
  For a bit, yes. For N bits, more bandwidth means more effective speed.
  - swombat 8y ago
    Well, no, not unless you define speed as “bandwidth”. If it takes 1ms for the 1 bit to get to the other side, it’s still going to take 1ms for N bits to get to the other side, even N-multiplexed. It’s the bandwidth that’s improved with multiplexing.
    - stingraycharles 8y ago
      While you're technically correct, isn't it pretty much an accepted fact that when people refer to the "speed" of internet, they are actually talking about bandwidth? E.g. "how fast is your internet", etc. It's of little value to the end user to know how fast a bit travels, all they care about is how fast they can download.

jve 8y ago

https://xkcd.com/1053/ https://xkcd.com/1053/