From: punditster@gmail.com   
      
   On 2/14/2026 10:44 AM, Wilson wrote:   
   >   
   > https://rationaloptimistsociety.substack.com/p/shady-stuff-is-happening-   
   > underwater   
   >   
   > You’re reading this essay thanks to the ocean. The "cloud" is actually   
   > underwater. Over 95% of internet data, your emails, bank transfers and   
   > ChatGPT queries, travel through a network of roughly 400 fiber-optic   
   > cables resting on the seabed. Over 90% of everything you own, from the   
   > phone in your pocket to the shoes on your feet to the fuel in your car,   
   > arrived by sea.   
   >   
   > Last December Ukraine launched an underwater drone named the "Sub Sea   
   > Baby," which sank a $400 million Russian submarine. A piece of hardware   
   > that cost less than a nice car destroyed a strategic asset worth nearly   
   > half a billion dollars. That’s how a country with effectively no navy   
   > (Ukraine) has forced the world’s third-largest Navy (Russia) to retreat   
   > from its own home base in the Black Sea.   
   >   
   > Ukraine "hacked" a robot navy together, taking what were essentially jet   
   > skis and packing them with explosives. Swarms of these $20,000 drones   
   > hunt in packs, disabling billion-dollar warships and even shooting down   
   > fighter jets.   
   >   
   > Any future conflict between the US and China (which I think is unlikely)   
   > won’t be decided by aerial drones. It won’t even be decided by advanced   
   > fighter jets, which have a short leash of around 600 miles. Ocean drones   
   > have no boundaries. Satellite internet turns the middle of the ocean   
   > from a communications dead zone into a high-speed network.   
   >   
   > You try to call family to see what’s going on, and the line is dead.   
   > This nightmare scenario happened to 14,000 people on the Matsu Islands   
   > near Taiwan. Chinese vessels cut their subsea cables, plunging the   
   > island into a digital blackout for a week. The global web of underwater   
   > internet cables is long enough to stretch to the moon and back twice.   
   > They are vulnerable. Taiwan had its internet cables cut nearly 30 times   
   > in recent years. Data pipelines in the Baltic Sea have been severed too.   
   > This is 21st-century sabotage.   
   >   
   > America’s Big Tech giants, Meta, Google, Microsoft, and Amazon, now   
   > account for more than 70% of new underwater data cables. Meta is   
   > currently building the world’s longest submarine cable. Project   
   > Waterworth will span 31,000 miles and will cost $10 billion. If you’re   
   > going to spend billions to build the underwater backbone of the AI   
   > economy, you’re also going to spend to protect it.   
    >   
   "Whoever rules the waves rules the world."   
   .   
   The Influence of Sea Power upon History by Alfred Thayer Mahan   
      
   The most comprehensive, up-to-date, and interactive map of the world's   
   submarine fiber-optic internet cables:   
      
   The Underwater Cables That Connect the World   
   https://tinyurl.com/bdcryrfe   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)