The Undersea Network Quotes

“If the world’s 223 international undersea cable systems were to suddenly disappear, only a minuscule amount of this traffic would be backed up by satellite, and the Internet would effectively be split between continents.”
― Nicole Starosielski, The Undersea Network

“The U.S. Navy also continues to use undersea cables; but unlike the oil industry or scientific observatories, it keeps its systems (informally termed black fiber) secret and rarely opens them to the public.”
― Nicole Starosielski, The Undersea Network

“Instead of using the cable break as an opportunity to increase technological literacy, popular discourses downplay the diversity and frequency of faults, more often coding disconnection as a large-scale disruption to the dominant cultural order.”
― Nicole Starosielski, The Undersea Network

“Creating new cultural narratives for undersea cables is critical to an informed public participation with the transnational Internet, especially in a privatized cable system where, as described in chapter 1, public perception can affect the development of new networks.”
― Nicole Starosielski, The Undersea Network

“Only forty-five undersea cables extend outward from the continental United States, supporting almost all of the country’s international data transactions.”
― Nicole Starosielski, The Undersea Network

“The lack of awareness extends even to the highest levels of the U.S. government: President Barack Obama’s 2013 executive order on cybersecurity made no specific mention of the undersea cable industry.”
― Nicole Starosielski, The Undersea Network