What is the Internet, really?

Our relationship with the internet is an interesting one that we mostly take for granted. Our lives are increasingly interwoven into it. We shop, conduct financial transactions, watch TV, play games, read newspapers, connect with family and colleagues through skype, or through social networking sites. We are so accustomed to connectivity that we fret and are annoyed when a website is down or are unable to get online. Yet, when was the last time any of us thought about what the internet is really made up of? Not the many access points through which we connect such as webpages, cellphones, or laptops. But the physical internet. Surely it is not digital bits flying through the cloud? No pun intended. A year or so ago, I read a series of articles in Wired Magazine written by Andrew Blum about the physical internet. The internet you can physically touch which is made up of cable and fiber optic cables crisscrossing oceans and land. It is made up of routers and huge server farms that consume as much power as entire cities. For your viewing pleasure, a twelve minute TedTalk video geeking out on the internet: http://www.ted.com/talks/andrew_blum_what_is_the_internet_really.html When you are watching the video, give some thought as to where the video physically resides and how you are able to view it from nearly anywhere in the world.