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Hey guys, before we go to break, there’s something very near and dear to my heart that WIRED wrote about this week. It’s something I like more than biathlon. They are undersea internet cables.
Leah Weiger: I love when you talk about this. I think the first time you brought this up to me was about a week after you became executive editor, and I said, “Leah, you know what I like?” These are undersea internet cables.
Brian Barrett: Yes. I was like, “Number one, undersea internet cables. Number two, my kids. Number three…” That was kind of the gist of it. This is how I always present myself. I want to take everyone back to December 14, 1988. The best movie in theaters is Twins Starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito.
Zoe Schiffer: Legally unheard of.
Leah Weiger: Wait, Zoe. What?
Brian Barrett: What? However, Arnold is Danny DeVito’s agent and impersonator. top song –
Zoe Schiffer: Now I understand that.
Brian Barrett: -The best song is “Look Away” by Chicago. Now, I’m not either, I don’t remember it at all. The first undersea fiber optic cable linking the United States, the United Kingdom, and France was commissioned. This was the day the Internet went global, which was crazy.
Zoe Schiffer: This is crazy.
Brian Barrett: -It was relatively recent. The reason we’re writing about it now is because this original cable, It is called TAT-8is withdrawn. It’s out of commission. It’s old, it’s run downSo I identified it, and it’s being pulled out and put out to pasture because the technology is getting better. But in this great feature that we published, it’s a look at how this world has fundamentally changed, and how we take it for granted – but the reason I’m so interested in submarine cable stories is because it’s so easy to forget that the Internet is a physical thing and that maintaining these things is actually what makes all this connectivity happen. So, yes, TAT-8. Are there any other fond memories of TAT-8? Firstly. What do you guys think reading this feature?
Zoe Schiffer: Well, it’s common knowledge that we weren’t alive in 1988.
Leah Weiger: Yes. Sorry, Brian. You are older than us. Just a reminder.
Brian Barrett: It hurts.
Zoe Schiffer: But the part of this story that I wanted to talk about, that seemed like a real intersection of your interests, was the myth of shark attacks.
Brian Barrett: Oh yes.
Leah Weiger: Yes. So, to back up a little bit, for these cables, initially, when they were put in, Brian would be able to talk this way more because he’s kind of obsessed with cables if you haven’t realized that already. These cables would sometimes suffer unexplained damage, and looking at them years later, engineers discovered that this kind of event happened, that if you put cables under the sea, there would be wind, there would be changes, things would move. Of course there would be damage, but that’s not how they felt at the time. These engineers assumed they were sharks, that sharks were biting their cables, and that they were destroying the Internet. The cables were reinforced with all these protective layers, all this stuff, because it was like, “Oh my God, the sharks are ending all this for us.” But this article goes into great detail about how they discovered it wasn’t sharks, and by thinking it was sharks, it actually helped make all this technology much better and more powerful, but the sharks were innocent, you guys. The sharks were innocent.