Just like the perilous underwater ocean journey Professor Pierre Aronnax undertook in Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas, a new threat is on the rise, where scientists warn that a massive global blackout could very soon be heading our way if critical attention is not yet given do this infrastructure which stretches for hundreds of miles under the ocean floor, providing us with key pieces of technology which allow us to operate in the modern era underscored by interconnectivity.
This ocean technology is responsible for your internet
Have you ever wondered just how your WiFi works? It’s all thanks to cables that lie at the bottom of the ocean floor. Submarine cables are critical for 99% of our global communications. Data flow depends upon these fiber-optic cables, which are the backbone of the modern internet age. Glass fibers inside these cables carry data through them as pulses of light, each representing digital information that is traveling at the speed of light. Every 50km-100km, repeaters are installed to boost the signal and assist with this network flow. These cables then connect to landing stations on land, which link into local telecom centers.
When you connect to the internet, the WiFi signals your router receives from your local network provider are thanks to this underwater system of cables. Without these, you would only be able to have local device connectivity and would not be able to connect to the global internet, which grants you access to people and services around the world. What is more, this critical infrastructur,e which allows us to connect to others across the world and supports all digitalization endeavors such as online banking, do not have any backup source, meaning if these are damaged we do not have an alternative solution towards keeping us online, even with satellite technology like Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s Starlink.
“While satellites provide edge connectivity…they account for a small amount of overall global capacity and typically cannot replace fiber-optic submarine cables…” describes the Insikt Group.
Risks of blackouts rise with continued damage
Recently, reports from the scientific community have emerged regarding how, in the last eighteen months, the risk of state-linked submarine cable sabotage is growing by the day. In the past year, there have been 44 reported cable damages across the Baltic Sea and Taiwan, with damage to these cables attributed to alleged targeted destruction suspected by Russia and China, respectively.
If these cables are destroyed, it means that a population can be effectively rendered into a total internet ‘blackout’, meaning countries with limited cable connections can lose all internet connectivity, which has significant consequences from a national security perspective as well as major economic repercussions if financial systems and institutions are taken offline even for mere minutes.
While much of this cable damage has been attributed to accidents from activities such as fishing and anchor dragging, tensions continue to escalate between nations over suspected intentional connectivity sabotage.
New underwater AI technology from China
While concerns over the risk of total internet blackouts continue to rise, China has been implementing new computing technology under the sea in order to support the creation of low-carbon computing solutions to support AI usage in a world that is grappling with the imminent threat of climate change.
The wind-powered underwater data center is currently underway in its developmental phase in Shanghai as a collaboration project between the Lin-gang Special Area Administration, Shanghai Lingang Special Area Investment Holding Group, and Shanghai Hicloud Technology. AI consumers large amounts of energy in order to achieve its output, and the creation of data centers which utilize renewable sources helps to ensure that we continue to address the energy crisis while continuing to advance technology.