Under the Sea
Geopolitical conflicts are getting hotter under the water.
The majority—99%—of intercontinental data traffic travels across the ocean floor via massive fiber-optic cables. They’re the backbone of the global internet… and last week, two were severed in the Baltic Sea.
One of the cables connected Finland and Germany; the other linked Sweden and Lithuania. Criminal investigations have begun in Europe, and the lead suspect is a Chinese vessel thought to have dragged its anchor near both damaged sites. The U.S. Navy believes the breaks were accidental, but other countries suspect sabotage because the cables were cut within 24 hours of each other during a hotbed of geopolitical conflict.
Meanwhile, Zuckerberg is tired of sharing. Meta announced plans to lay a globe-spanning 25,000 miles of private undersea cable. The project will take years and cost $10 billion.
Verse to consider when mind-blowing technology proves fallible… “I have seen all the things that are done under the sun and have found everything to be futile, a pursuit of the wind… For with much wisdom is much sorrow; as knowledge increases, grief increases.”
Ecclesiastes 1:14, 18 (CSB) (read full passage)