Andrew Blum: What is the Internet, really?

When a squirrel chewed through a cable and knocked him offline, journalist Andrew Blum started wondering what the Internet was really made of. So he set out to go see it -- the underwater cables, secret switches and other physical bits that make up the net.

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[Luke Hero]

How do you remember your username?

[M4ttz8]

At first I wanted to slam you for the pompous way you hold yourself and the rude way you insulted the intelligence of this man, but then I realized you were right.

[ilikemuzik420]

so wait.... this is just overgrown telecom basically? sounds like the cables that made telegrams possible

[ilikemuzik420]

and then i got these crip kicks lol

[Cody R]

Sometimes I wonder if the TED guys are ever going to figure out that cutting to angles of the gaping jaws of random audience members is jarring and unnecessary.

[Tashtego Dutton]

with that the title of this video the scope of his speach could have been broader.

[truedeadandlife]

I get what he means. I read the Jobs biography and after that I also felt quite strongly to remember where it all started with modern electric technology we know today.

[Corey Doyle]

He wanted to see it, and touch it. It's very important that we know how things that we use, work. What makes a notification on your phone possible, and more importantly, how the world works.

-Cheers

[Corey Doyle]

This guy unequivocally uses that word too often.

-Cheers

[Ron Villejo]

Brilliant! Blum is right, once the workers cover the manhole with sand, we forget how physical the internet really is.

[joyzey22]

Try using your right hemisphere, you might see it slightly more holistically and less literally. It's clearly meant to be more entertaining and lighthearted than heavily intellectual. The implications of the natural properties of light and electricity to transfer huge amounts of immensely varied kinds of information, the connectivity which emerges, and the relationship to visible nuts and bolts physicality should interest everyone. That interest does not have to be strictly analytical.