What is the Internet?
By the standard Webster dictionary definition the internet is;
Internet |ˈintərˌnet|an international computer network providing e-mail and information from computers in educational institutions, government agencies, and industry, accessible to the general public via modem links.
By reading this I began to think and wonder about just what the internet is and if this definition is correct. Is the internet a physical thing? Can we see it somehow? I know that we cannot really see the data transfer between networks, or modems but is there a physical thing that we can see that will enable us to realize just how vast our modern internet expands across the globe? In searching answers for this topic I stumbled across a TED talk by author Andrew Blum. In it he tries to answer just what the internet is and does an excellent job of depicting the physicality of it as it extends it's reach around the world. I hope you enjoy...
You can check out more of Andrew Blum's work in his book "TUBES" where he visited the places where the internet exists in physical form: the cables and switches and servers that virtually connect us.
So the next time you connect online, or send an email try and think about the many different places that your information may have travelled to before reaching it's final destination. Our information travels in an instant thanks to the network that we have built up since the internet's inception. How ironic then is it that we can have such a vast physical network for our internet yet communication in some parts of the world are still so very limited. Something to think about.
This contemplative question was brought to you today by the letter E.
Internet |ˈintərˌnet|an international computer network providing e-mail and information from computers in educational institutions, government agencies, and industry, accessible to the general public via modem links.
By reading this I began to think and wonder about just what the internet is and if this definition is correct. Is the internet a physical thing? Can we see it somehow? I know that we cannot really see the data transfer between networks, or modems but is there a physical thing that we can see that will enable us to realize just how vast our modern internet expands across the globe? In searching answers for this topic I stumbled across a TED talk by author Andrew Blum. In it he tries to answer just what the internet is and does an excellent job of depicting the physicality of it as it extends it's reach around the world. I hope you enjoy...
You can check out more of Andrew Blum's work in his book "TUBES" where he visited the places where the internet exists in physical form: the cables and switches and servers that virtually connect us.
So the next time you connect online, or send an email try and think about the many different places that your information may have travelled to before reaching it's final destination. Our information travels in an instant thanks to the network that we have built up since the internet's inception. How ironic then is it that we can have such a vast physical network for our internet yet communication in some parts of the world are still so very limited. Something to think about.
This contemplative question was brought to you today by the letter E.
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