What Does the Internet Look Like?
February 11, 2015 1:25 PM   Subscribe

What Does the Internet Look Like? The Gothamist takes artist and writer Ingrid Burrington's field guide to New York City's internet infrastructure, which you too can go out and buy for that special someone in your life.
posted by jlittlew (14 comments total) 18 users marked this as a favorite
 
This post gets even better if you imagine Samuel L. Jackson reading the title over and over.
(Just like every other post.)
posted by PlusDistance at 1:39 PM on February 11, 2015 [6 favorites]


Jen: Can I touch it? It's so light!
Moss: Of course it is, Jen. The Internet doesn't weigh anything.
posted by Foosnark at 1:51 PM on February 11, 2015 [11 favorites]


"I remember once I was in a restaurant and overheard a teenage girl ask her dad, 'What's a server?' This is a 15-year-old girl with an iPhone, and there is absolutely no practical reason for her to know what a server is. But that's sort of sad, because to some extent, not knowing how the system works means that it's very easy for it to work against you."

It's the person in the restaurant who brings her food to her table.
posted by Sys Rq at 2:00 PM on February 11, 2015 [8 favorites]


Oooooh, it's like a supplement to "The Works," which my children make me read them every single day. I have a feeling we'll be getting this for bedtime reading.

(If you like this, you will also like Underground.)
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 2:07 PM on February 11, 2015 [2 favorites]


Ok.

I used to do work with BBN, the folks who basically invented the Internet, or at least ARPANET, email, etc.

They mentioned that, for awhile, all internet traffic essentially routed through a server that was located in a small closet, a closet that had been converted into an interns office. On the wall of the closet was an On/Off switch. The On/Off switch for the Internet. I immediately got directions to the room and took a picture on my Palm Treo.

But I didn't have the nerve to throw the switch.

So, this is what the internet looks like. Really.
posted by blahblahblah at 2:09 PM on February 11, 2015 [10 favorites]


Previously: Ingrid Burrington's presentation at Deep Lab.
posted by Bangaioh at 2:13 PM on February 11, 2015 [1 favorite]


They mentioned that, for awhile, all internet traffic essentially routed through a server that was located in a small closet, a closet that had been converted into an interns office. On the wall of the closet was an On/Off switch. The On/Off switch for the Internet. I immediately got directions to the room and took a picture on my Palm Treo.

Hmm.
posted by Sys Rq at 2:31 PM on February 11, 2015


Seems that the "buy" link is using about 98% of that infrastructure considering the number of hops my browser took to get there.
posted by turbid dahlia at 3:17 PM on February 11, 2015


I've been running TCP/IP networks big and small for 20 years now but I still have no idea of what mysterious process takes place to spirit away my own feces. Are there any amazing visualizations of plumbing and sewage networks?
posted by mr.ersatz at 3:32 PM on February 11, 2015 [5 favorites]


This looks like it'd be a great complement to Brian Silver's book on infrastructure more generally (which also covers electricity, roads-- and sewage!).
posted by mr_deerheart at 3:56 PM on February 11, 2015


Both "The Works" and "Underground" which I linked above have sewage. The Works is all about the infrastructure that runs a city -- transit, utilities, waste, etc. -- and Underground is a visual examination of all the infrastructure underneath a New York City intersection. YOU WILL LEARN MORE THAN YOU EVER WANED TO KNOW ABOUT POOP.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 3:57 PM on February 11, 2015 [2 favorites]


ISO hobo signs for A Nice Lady Lives Here Who Serves Tasty Torrents and Good Christian Family With Free Wi-Fi.
posted by dhartung at 5:23 PM on February 11, 2015 [1 favorite]


Re 'server':

I have been in computer grafix too long. I remember when a colleague reported: "I was on a bus in NYC, and these two middle-aged women were talking, and one of them mentioned 'pixels'."

We were all wowed--the cat has left the bag! This was in the 1980s.

(pixel is an abbrev. of 'picture element', as anyone working with them in 1970 could tell you. They can be quite small, as on 'retina' displays. They can also be pretty large; a few Times Square signs have 20mm pixels, though most are now 5mm. And pixels are not 'square'; a pixel does not have a shape; pixels are points arranged in patterns. Usually, the pattern is a square grid, though NTSC video used pixels arranged in a 4x5 rectangular grid).
posted by hexatron at 7:16 PM on February 11, 2015


if you're looking for things on a bigger scale: Infrastructure: The Book of Everything for the Industrial Landscape is really great
posted by Mach5 at 8:29 PM on February 11, 2015 [1 favorite]


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