on the 'Tubes'

Now that much of the tactile interaction we have with the internet are completely wireless, it's easy to forget that the 'Web' is actually a giant physical network of cables, wires, tunnels, and tubes.Andrew Blum's book 'Tubes' digs into the physical infrastructure that makes up the internet and illuminates the nooks and crannies where all of our Facebook likes and Netflix Queues are speeding around the globe.What was originally a system of cables used to transmit telegrams and connect telephones has morphed into a data network of immense proportion. Massive and monolithic, switching stations and data centers placed at geographically efficient coordinates quietly store and transmit the exponentially growing glut of information that we create and consume every day.This book is the story of the 'unsung heroes' who get their hands dirty connecting all the pipes, dredging out the tunnels, and sailing long voyages to lay the trans-oceanic fiber spiderweb out for the rest of us.It's a unique perspective, one that is hard to imagine when you're sending Instant Messages between California and Colorado, or having a Skype conversation across continents. All the images, text and voice fragments are bits that exist in pulses of light, with real physical properties that travel in real space on hard wires that must be meticulously planned, architected and maintained.My local pride in Northern Virginia is at least partially responsible for my interest in the topic. Blum writes:

For all of us sitting in front of our screens, the Internet only works because every network is connected, somehow, to every other. So where do those connections physically happen? More than most anywhere else, the answer is "Ashburn."

The author visits the great connection points of the modern internet, including Ashburn, Porthcurno, and the Dalles, Oregon. He considers the importance of location in connecting the nodes, and the implications of geographical density, access to open land, choke points, and the shortest paths between places of interest.The characters who keep the network buzzing are described as humble thunder-bolt throwers:

As I listened to them, I loved how intimate it made the Internet's infrastructure seem, how the queries and messages of an entire hemisphere could be understood in the clink of beer bottles in a bar in Texas.

Blum states that he wrote the book because he wanted to find the 'aura' of the internet. I'm not sure if he succeeded, but his attempt makes for an interesting read. Awareness of the hard working equipment that makes this blog post possible makes me even more appreciative that brian writing can exist.