I'm not sure about that. fiber optics use light which, in a vacuum, has a speed of 299,792,458 m/s. If the fiber optics were made of some kind of glass with the refractive index (n) of 1.5. using the equation v=c/n, the resulting velocity would be 199,861,638.66. I don't know what the refractive index of spider silk is, but it can't be less than 1 (the speed of light). The silk its self couldn't transmit much faster, but if the attenuation (degradation of the signal) was lower, then there would be the need for less repeaters.
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@Mr. Tech
I'm not sure about that. fiber optics use light which, in a vacuum, has a speed of 299,792,458 m/s. If the fiber optics were made of some kind of glass with the refractive index (n) of 1.5. using the equation v=c/n, the resulting velocity would be 199,861,638.66. I don't know what the refractive index of spider silk is, but it can't be less than 1 (the speed of light). The silk its self couldn't transmit much faster, but if the attenuation (degradation of the signal) was lower, then there would be the need for less repeaters.