Readings 1
Fiber Optic Cables run on the ocean floor connecting Hawaii to other parts of the world. The narrator finds a pothole which is one of the few sites where cable systems appear in public space. Along the cable path there is a cave with tents and shelters inside. This part of Hawaii carries that high-speed internet connection and is also where impoverished people are forced to live. The construction of the cable is tied to military presence and economic hardship and has also displaced people in Hawaii. The author speaks about an inaccessible cable station built in the early 2000s in a place called Malili. It brought no visible benefit to the surrounding neighborhood. The author describes how the network infrastructure does more harm than help to the locals. It is tied to historical colonization and militarization. We see the internet and modern communication as wireless but they were placed underneath our feet sometimes through force and displacement of indigenous people. The author introduced strategies of insulation where organizations try to protect cables with regulations that disrupt daily life for some people. Such as more policing, and regulations on fishing/boating. Strategies of Interconnection is how these cables depend on local labor, funding, communities, and governments to maintain it. The global network is very dependent on local places and local politics have shaped the internet throughout history.
Those who mark the area before a construction crew digs is an incredibly important part of the whole operation. Burrington attends a Utility Locate Rodeo to watch this sort of competitive marking. Locators use a transmitter case or a metal detector to verify and mark off where utilities are buried with spray paint or small flags. Not only with tools, locators also rely on observation for example they look at the composition of the soil or cracks in the concrete. The stakes are very high for a locator. They need to be very accurate or else there may be gas explosions, water bursting, or losing internet from a sliced fiber-optic cable. The rodeo exists to bring the locator into light as it is often an unrecognized job. “No one really understands how much stuff is in the ground.” People believe the global network is sleek, polished, and invisible in the air. But it is really hidden beneath the surface of the earth, it's messy, and full of lost and abandoned histories.
Both Burrington’s article and the Hawaii article contradict against the common misconception that the “cloud” is invisible and placeless. Optic cables are hidden underneath the surface as utilities are buried underneath the earth. There is real history behind cable routes marked by political conflict and colonization. It is parallel to how cable networks are messy, and contain old and new technology. In both contexts, people assume the system is neat, effortless, and invisible. On the contrary, there is a lot that goes into making construction happen for cables that goes unnoticed.