Earth’s AI predicts that Mars colonists will want to watch the 4K stream of the Jovian Election results. Instead of waiting for a request, the Solar System transmits the data to the Proxy Gateways at the Heliopause (the edge of the sun’s influence).
The total bandwidth from Earth to the Kuiper Belt is currently measured in kilobits per second. An interstellar proxy requires petabit-scale laser comms across 4.2 light-years. interstellar proxy
An interstellar proxy would intercept a request from a user in one system, process it against local caches or "predicted" data, and return a result without the signal ever completing the round trip to the origin server. Earth’s AI predicts that Mars colonists will want
Voyager 1 sends a signal. It takes 22 hours to reach Earth. Earth stores that data (caches it), processes it, and replies. Voyager does not talk to "the origin of the universe"; it talks to Earth. Earth is the proxy. It takes 22 hours to reach Earth
How do you trust a proxy that is 10 light-years away? If a malicious actor hijacks the interstellar proxy, they can lie to an entire star system for a decade before Earth finds out. This requires blockchain-like consensus distributed across multiple proxy nodes (Quorum Interstellar Networking). The Speculative Tech: Quantum Entanglement vs. Relay A common misconception is that quantum entanglement will replace the interstellar proxy. It won't. Entanglement cannot transmit information faster than light (No-communication theorem).
The user experiences a latency of 2 hours, not 10 years.
For the rest of us? It is the invisible infrastructure that will allow your great-great-grandchildren on TRAPPIST-1e to stream cat videos from Old Earth without buffering.