Blog 3: How Digital Mimics Literal

Throughout Andrew Blum’s time visiting all these different locals, he’s come to learn so many new things to teach to us readers. Now though it seems like the information given in the reading more or less just repeats topics mentioned before for the sake of emphasizing their importance. That being said, I am glad that he still continues his journey by putting focus to the international side of things in Chapters 5 and 6.

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As a computer science student, something that I’ve come to learn when it comes to programming is that often the best way to create a program to solve a problem is to look at real life. When you stop to think about how people deal with various real world situations by the individual steps, it starts to look like instructions you could get a machine to follow, and really all things computer related - including the internet - follows this concept. It doesn’t matter how complex or tedious a task is, if a person could technically do it in the right conditions then machines can do the same. This is an idea that is brought up often in the book, what with Blum’s various metaphors on how the internet works - his description of how bits of data figure out where to go from router to router comes to mind. In Chapter 6 though this idea is brought to the forefront with him talking about the undersea cables in page 194. It’s here that he mentions that the way we send digital information to internationally known port cities mimics how travelers in ancient times would transfer information by boat to those same locations. No matter how advanced we may become as a society, it appears that there will be some things that never change.

Questions

• What other connections to the real world do you see in the internet?
• On page page 196 it's mentioned that companies like people like Mr. Blum as he can get their name out there with good press. Could the information these people are giving him be sugarcoated/be hiding certain details so as to make said companies look better to the public?

Image from: https://realityrenaissance.com/2013/03/27/past-vs-future/

Blog 2: Digital Enlightenment

Up to this point the talk about the wires that carry our internet signals were always underground or underwater - talking about how the internet physically exists in the international sense. With Chapters 3 and 4 we now got to see how the internet is tangible on a more national scale. More importantly, the machines that host the internet were covered.

Admittedly I was unsure on what I was expecting when it came to the servers themselves, at best I thought they all would be big hulking machines constantly active as they managed people’s connections, but surprisingly enough that wasn’t always the case. The “core” in Chapter 4, from Andrew’s description, seems to not be all that impressive in stature - stating how it “...looked a lot like all the Internet’s other machines.” (Page 143) I took this to mean that it was most likely similar in appearance to a desktop computer case (like the image above) and even I can’t help but be surprised. I know that as technology gets more advanced it tends to also shrink in size, but the idea of something of that stature being capable of transferring so much data is nothing short of incredible! I also found how Mr. Blum reacted to the sight of the machine enjoyable. His knowledge on other works really does a good job of emphasizing how extraordinary such a sight was for him.

I think his reactions to this, as well as seeing the other internet locations, mimic my reactions when I first saw how hand-drawn animation works. Finally coming to grasp on how extraordinary something seemingly straightforward is, finally understanding how much work and heart is needed to accomplish the end goal - seeing firsthand how said goal can evolve to be something more than what was initially anticipated - it really can feel like you’ve been enlightened to the new age.

Questions

• What kind of struggles would we have to overcome (socially, economically,  globally, etc.) if the physical side of the internet was severely damaged?
• It’s mentioned how Andrew is constantly amazed learning more about the literal internet, while his daughter doesn’t think of it as much since she hasn’t seen a world without internet. What other kinds of aspects in our lives do you think this could apply to? In those aspects are you like Andrew or his daughter?

Image from: https://res.cloudinary.com/mediocre/image/upload/c_pad,f_auto,h_600,q_80,w_600/eof6vc8z11qkryfchdug.png

Blog 1: First Impressions of "TUBES" and the Need of Trust

Going into the prologue I was immediately interested in this title’s subject matter. Andrew Blum’s questioning of the physical, literal concept of the internet mirror the questions I’ve always had about the interweb, but never bothered to learn more about. The most I knew about the physical internet are the same kinds of rumors mentioned in the book - incredibly long wires underground/water connecting to bulking machines that do all the magic. It isn’t magic however - it was invented by scientists, and as such there must be someway to see it in action beyond the computer screen.

Throughout the following two chapters, as Andrew was starting to see the internet face to face, he mentioned how he realized that a lot of how the internet works is reliant on trust. Doing anything online means putting yourself out there in some shape or form, and this can lead to dire situations if handled incorrectly. This concept was the one that resonated with me the most, as this mimics the idea of being careful of who you trust and being careful of what you share in real life surprisingly well. In the end it seems like the internet revolves around not only the freedom to share information but also the concept of vulnerability we all have. Take a college student’s daily routine for example. If we treat a student traveling to the campus to be similar to a packet of information traveling across the “internet highway”, there needs to be a level of trust that the final location is truly what it says it is. There also has to be trust that the path to the location will be reliable enough to be reused in the future, as well as trust that nothing out of the ordinary will occur once one arrives and eventually returns from the destination. Whether in the digital world or the real one, trust is always key.

Questions

• How much trust do you personally have when interacting online? Do you take any extra precautions when on the web?
• Do you think the level of trust that is needed online has affected how much people trust each other in real life?

Image from: http://www.digitalinformationworld.com/2014/07/can-you-trust-internet-in-2014-infographic.html