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Comment by the_af | Hacker News Reader

Vandalism of public phones (when they existed) was pretty common in my city. And garbage bins in public spaces get destroyed all the time for no reason. Everything that isn't nailed down and very robust gets destroyed or stolen.

Infrastructure things related to water pipes (at the buildings level) gets stolen, too (happened in my building recently). Everything that can be resold as raw materials gets stolen.

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For a cable at the bottom of the ocean, there is a barrier to entry though. For theft in the city, the thing being stolen is pretty easily accessible, and requires much less thought than getting some kind of submersible and going to the bottom of the ocean

The egress/ingress points can sometimes be accessible by shore, but the cables I have seen there are pretty heavily armored (likely just the same type used to armor against ship anchors)

> The egress/ingress points can sometimes be accessible by shore, but the cables I have seen there are pretty heavily armored

I think the cables are of variable thickness. Thicker at the shore and in areas there is higher risk for damage because of rocks etc, and thinner where it's deeper and flatter.

Definitely. I was only discussing the telegraph and its skeptics.

Does your city have those scooters that people ride without helmets at great speeds?

We used to, briefly. It was a failed experiment (not sure if they stole them, though I guess some were stolen).

We still have bikes though.

this is cultural. not every city is as you describe

Oh, I'm aware it's cultural.

I was just arguing it wasn't unreasonable for telegraph skeptics to believe vandalism would be common.

The second statement is true; the first is not necessarily the reason.

Seems tautologically true to me. Culture covers a lot of ground. Like saying "cities have a lot of people for urban reasons".

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