If you read the article, and didn't think to get a little more information the SS Great Eastern, mentioned early on as the first cable repair vessel, here you go:
https://historicaldigression.com/2011/03/28/the-great-easter...
The invisible seafaring industry that keeps the internet afloat
71–80 of 95 posts
Re: The invisible seafaring industry that keeps the internet afloat
#72My Dad was an ROV technician for a brief period in the early 2000s, he got made redundant in early 2002 just after 9/11, and the dot com bubble bursting. On his last of the only two trips he made, he was based in Recife in northern Brazil. The ship was just there, on call, ready to respond to any breakages. My Mum, sister, and I were lucky enough to be flown out to Brazil for Christmas 2001, and it's something I'll n…
Hi, ex Nortel Networks employee here.
I used to run them DMS switches. (Divorce Made Simple, or Days Midnights and Sundays)
Re: The invisible seafaring industry that keeps the internet afloat
#73Right from the start, the tone of the presentation struck a wrong kind of chord with me. "The world's most important infrastructure"? Dear author, try living without electricity or fresh water for a few days, then I'll ask you again...
I thought the same, but then, after a few pages, was this:
> If, hypothetically, all these cables were to simultaneously break, modern civilization would cease to function. The financial system would immediately freeze. Currency trading would stop; stock exchanges would close. Banks and governments would be unable to move funds between countries because the Swift and US interbank systems both rely on submarine cables to settle over $10 trillion in transactions each day. In large swaths of the world, people would discover their credit cards no longer worked and ATMs would dispense no cash. As US Federal Reserve staff director Steve Malphrus said at a 2009 cable security conference, “When communications networks go down, the financial services sector does not grind to a halt. It snaps to a halt.”
> Corporations would lose the ability to coordinate overseas manufacturing and logistics. Seemingly local institutions would be paralyzed as outsourced accounting, personnel, and customer service departments went dark. Governments, which rely on the same cables as everyone else for the vast majority of their communications, would be largely cut off from their overseas outposts and each other. Satellites would not be able to pick up even half a percent of the traffic. Contemplating the prospect of a mass cable cut to the UK, then-MP Rishi Sunak concluded, “Short of nuclear or biological warfare, it is difficult to think of a threat that could be more justifiably described as existential.”
You could still argue with "the world's most important" claim, but this makes it clear that it is at least somewhat defensible.
Re: The invisible seafaring industry that keeps the internet afloat
#74Right from the start, the tone of the presentation struck a wrong kind of chord with me. "The world's most important infrastructure"? Dear author, try living without electricity or fresh water for a few days, then I'll ask you again...
I thought the same, but then, after a few pages, was this: > If, hypothetically, all these cables were to simultaneously break, modern civilization would cease to function. The financial system would immediately freeze. Currency trading would stop; stock exchanges would close. Banks and governments would be unable to move funds between countries because the Swift and US interbank systems both rely on submarine cables…
But that's rather overstating the case, isn't it? If all these cables simultaneously break, we'd switch to Starlink (at much lower total bandwidth), and international communication would drop in volume, with the most valuable uses winning.
Millisecond-level currency trading would cease, but second- or minute-level trading would continue, and that would not dramatically destroy economies.
ATMs of foreign banks might stop working; local banks should continue.
Watching video from a foreign server would no longer be possible, but that's not the end of the world.
And so on. It would slow many things down, some things would stop, but it wouldn't be the end of modern civilization.
Re: The invisible seafaring industry that keeps the internet afloat
#75Earlier quoted context omitted.
I thought the same, but then, after a few pages, was this: > If, hypothetically, all these cables were to simultaneously break, modern civilization would cease to function. The financial system would immediately freeze. Currency trading would stop; stock exchanges would close. Banks and governments would be unable to move funds between countries because the Swift and US interbank systems both rely on submarine cables…
But that's rather overstating the case, isn't it? If all these cables simultaneously break, we'd switch to Starlink (at much lower total bandwidth), and international communication would drop in volume, with the most valuable uses winning. Millisecond-level currency trading would cease, but second- or minute-level trading would continue, and that would not dramatically destroy economies. ATMs of foreign banks might s…
> we'd switch to Starlink (at much lower total bandwidth)
That's some kind of understatement, assuming that TFA is correct:
> Satellites would not be able to pick up even half a percent of the traffic.
I very much doubt that the trading systems that today rely on international data cables can be run via phones and voice communications, and I also wonder just how much of the phone system (even domestically within the USA) paradoxically relies in submarine cables.
Re: The invisible seafaring industry that keeps the internet afloat
#76Not that quickly fixed. EAC has been out for months. But it is a cool industry.
Re: The invisible seafaring industry that keeps the internet afloat
#77Earlier quoted context omitted.
But that's rather overstating the case, isn't it? If all these cables simultaneously break, we'd switch to Starlink (at much lower total bandwidth), and international communication would drop in volume, with the most valuable uses winning. Millisecond-level currency trading would cease, but second- or minute-level trading would continue, and that would not dramatically destroy economies. ATMs of foreign banks might s…
> we'd switch to Starlink (at much lower total bandwidth) That's some kind of understatement, assuming that TFA is correct: > Satellites would not be able to pick up even half a percent of the traffic. I very much doubt that the trading systems that today rely on international data cables can be run via phones and voice communications, and I also wonder just how much of the phone system (even domestically within the…
> Satellites would not be able to pick up even half a percent of the traffic.
So? How much of that traffic is video? If you eliminate that, what percentage of the rest can satellite pick up?
I was not proposing that trading systems run via phones and voice. No, those are much less bandwidth-efficient than data. I was proposing that they continue to be run by data, just with lower frequency. (Will the global economy really collapse without HFT on currencies?)
Re: The invisible seafaring industry that keeps the internet afloat
#78[dead]
Re: The invisible seafaring industry that keeps the internet afloat
#79My Dad was an ROV technician for a brief period in the early 2000s, he got made redundant in early 2002 just after 9/11, and the dot com bubble bursting. On his last of the only two trips he made, he was based in Recife in northern Brazil. The ship was just there, on call, ready to respond to any breakages. My Mum, sister, and I were lucky enough to be flown out to Brazil for Christmas 2001, and it's something I'll n…
hi, i spent christmas 2001 in brazil too :)
Re: The invisible seafaring industry that keeps the internet afloat
#80I guess I am biased to like the article including it's presentation, since I spent 6 years as a technical diver fixing underwater hydraulics and electrical systems, but at much shallower depths than the undersea cables. A buddy of mine is an ROV operator for pipe-laying ships. Cool stuff, big stuff, and lots of crazy stuff involved (seeing weird, unidentifiable living creatures quickly and blurrily cross in front of…
> I have always had to have some physicality to my work in order to be satisfied This also describes me pretty well. I was trained as a merchant ship's deck officer but opted to not go to sea as a career. Instead, I've spent my career building embedded systems. Every so often, I build a desktop app or a web application, but it lacks the satisfaction of being able to touch the hardware and actually watch my code affec…
> affect something in the physical world.
This is satisfying. Especially anything electromechanical.
In a similar tangent, I believe social media isn't really social since you don't have people face to face talking to each other. The physical touch and facial expressions are quite important.