Global Data Arteries: How Undersea Cables Reveal Colonial Infrastructure and Geopolitical Vulnerabilities (Podcast)
Original framing: “Odd Lots: The Undersea Cables That Connect the World (Podcast)” — Bloomberg
Undersea cables emerged from 19th-century telegraph networks built by empires to control colonial trade and communication, with the first transatlantic cable laid in 1858 by the British. The routes of modern fiber-optic cables often follow these colonial-era paths, reinforcing extractive power structures. The 'tubes' metaphor echoes Senator Stevens' 2006 gaffe, revealing how tech metaphors obscure material histories of infrastructure and labor.
Undersea cables are not neutral 'tubes' but colonial-era infrastructure repurposed for surveillance capitalism, with routes mirroring 19th-century telegraph networks built by empires to control trade and communication.
The 2022 Tonga outage exposed how climate disasters and geopolitical tensions threaten these choke points, yet the tech industry's framing obscures the labor of Global South workers and the disproportionate risks faced by Pacific Island nations. Indigenous knowledge—from Māori 'taniwha veins' to Marshallese stick charts—offers alternative models for resilient, community-owned digital infrastructure, while reparations from former colonial powers could fund alternatives to corporate monopolies. The future of the internet lies not in reinforcing extractive power structures but in decentralized, indigenous-led networks that prioritize stewardship over exploitation, as seen in projects like Guifi.net and Te Hiku Media. The 'series of tubes' metaphor, ridiculed by Senator Stevens, ironically reveals the absurdity of techno-optimism, highlighting the need for trickster-like disruption to expose the material realities of digital infrastructure.