From: punditster@gmail.com   
      
   On 2/14/2026 10:54 PM, dart200 wrote:   
   > On 2/14/26 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   
   >   
   > "underwater drone" ... so a torpedo???   
   >   
   Bam!   
    >   
   >> 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.   
   >   
   > lol @ journos figuring out private defense contractors charge like 100x   
   > the actual cost of the tech itself   
   >   
   Probably a science journalist. What do they know?   
    >   
   > imagine if we weren't trying to use war to enrich crapitalists   
   >   
   You sending text messages to chat rooms may look like war words, but   
   really it's probably more of a cry for help or viewing job applications.   
      
   Or, maybe some people just feel better when they have someone to text   
   with. Keep up the good work!   
    >   
   >>   
   >> 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.   
   >   
   > what about "aerial drones" ... aka missiles???   
   >   
   Missiles and aerial drones have a limited range and are not effective in   
   targeting satellites in space.   
    > >>   
   >> 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.   
   >   
   > yeah but we're building multiple satellite internets   
   >   
   Who is this we, of whom you speak?   
    >   
   > and while slower ... it's plenty fast for basic text, which is fine for   
   > quite a large majority of advanced organization   
   >   
   When the cables are cut there will be no texting.   
    > >>   
   >> 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.   
   >   
   It's all about the network of tubes based on IT and WWW. When tubes get   
   this large we call them cables, but in fact, they are cables withing tubes.   
      
   Everything on planet earth depends on tubes, Nick.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)