互联网其实在海底

互联网其实生活在海底。把这个故事分享给还在说“一切都在云端”的人。几乎所有跨越海洋的信息都不会飞到任何地方，而是沿着铺在海床上的电缆传送，穿过寒冷黑暗的深海，与鱼和螃蟹为伴。

The internet lives underwater. Send this to anyone who still says everything is in the cloud. Nearly every message that crosses an ocean does not fly anywhere. It travels along cables lying on the sea floor, in the cold and the dark, beside fish and crabs.

这些电缆比人们想象的要细得多。在几乎没有什么能触及的深海远处，有些电缆的粗细和一条花园浇水管差不多。内部是细如发丝的玻璃纤维，光沿着这些玻璃传送，承载着照片、通话、电影，以及你发往另一个大陆的每一句话。

The cables are thinner than people expect. Far out in deep water, where almost nothing can reach them, some are no thicker than a garden hose. Inside are hairs of glass, and light runs along that glass carrying photos, calls, films and every word you send to another continent.

有些东西会把电缆弄断。并不是鲨鱼，虽然确实有一次鲨鱼咬过电缆，这个故事至今流传不衰。真正的元凶大多是渔具和拖在海床上的沉重船锚。这种事每年在世界各地发生一百多次。之后，一艘船会出海，找到断裂的电缆，把它从海底拉起，把玻璃纤维重新接好，再放回海里。原来，所谓的“云端”也会晕船。

Things break them. Not sharks, although a shark did chew one once and the story has never died. Mostly it is fishing gear and heavy anchors dragging along the bottom. It happens more than a hundred times a year, somewhere in the world. Then a ship sails out, finds the broken line, lifts it up from the sea floor, joins the glass back together and lowers it down again. The cloud, it turns out, gets seasick.