Riches in the groundΒΆ

A cross-section of earth with root-like cable bundles threading through dark soil, BGP routes branching between autonomous systems like mycelium. Deep underground, something is quietly redirecting the flow. The map says the traffic arrived safely. It did not.

Underneath the applications, traffic has to go somewhere, and what decides where is machinery few people look at: routers taking announcements from their neighbours on trust, resolvers answering from cache, switches learning which port holds which address. None of it was built to be lied to. A network that has been told something false keeps working normally, which is what makes the lie worth telling. The packets arrive. They can arrive somewhere else on the way.

Forever in progress ...