Networks & the Internet

Watch

• What is the Internet of Things? And why should you care? | Benson Hougland | TEDxTemecula ↗TEDx Talks
• How Does the Internet Work? - Glad You Asked S1 ↗Vox
• This is Cuba's Netflix, Hulu, and Spotify – all without the internet ↗Vox
• Future Computers Will Be Radically Different (Analog Computing) ↗Veritasium

Read

• Where Wizards Stay Up Late: The Origins of the Internet ↗A compelling narrative of the visionaries and engineers who forged the ARPANET, laying the groundwork for the global network we know today.Katie Hafner and Matthew Lyon
• Tubes: A Journey to the Center of the Internet ↗An illuminating expedition into the hidden physical infrastructure—cables, data centres, and exchanges—that underpins the seemingly ethereal digital world.Andrew Blum
• Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace ↗A seminal exploration of how the architecture of the internet, 'code,' shapes and constrains behaviour, often more powerfully than traditional legal frameworks.Lawrence Lessig
• A Protocol for Packet Network IntercommunicationThe foundational technical paper that introduced TCP/IP, detailing the architecture that enabled disparate networks to communicate and form the internet.Vinton Cerf and Robert Kahn
• End-to-End Arguments in System DesignA concise, influential paper articulating the 'end-to-end principle,' a core design philosophy that explains much of the internet's robustness and flexibility.Jerome H. Saltzer, David P. Reed, and David D. Clark

Voices to follow

• Vint Cerf ↗A foundational architect of the internet's core protocols, his ongoing advocacy shapes its future governance and accessibility.Vice President and Chief Internet Evangelist, Google; Co-designer of TCP/IP
• Tim Berners-Lee ↗The progenitor of the World Wide Web, he remains a critical voice in safeguarding its open, decentralised principles against commercial and governmental encroachment.Inventor of the World Wide Web; Director, World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
• Susan Crawford ↗Her incisive analysis illuminates the policy failures and monopolistic tendencies hindering equitable broadband access, advocating for the internet as a public utility.John A. Reilly Clinical Professor of Law, Harvard Law School; Author
• Cory Doctorow ↗A prolific commentator on digital rights and technology policy, he offers a trenchant critique of corporate power and surveillance in the networked age.Science fiction author; Journalist; Activist

Glossary

• BandwidthBandwidth measures how much data can be sent or received over an Internet connection in a certain amount of time, like the width of a pipe for water. Higher bandwidth means faster speeds. For example, if your internet has high bandwidth, you can stream high-quality videos without buffering, but low bandwidth might make videos load slowly.
• Download/UploadDownloading means receiving data from the Internet to your device, while uploading means sending data from your device to the Internet. Think of it as taking something from the cloud (download) or putting something into the cloud (upload). For example, when you save a song from a music streaming service, you are downloading it; when you post a photo to social media, you are uploading it.
• InternetThe Internet is a giant, worldwide network of computers and other devices that are all connected to each other. It allows people everywhere to share information and communicate. For example, when you send a message to a friend in another city or watch a video online, you are using the Internet.
• IP AddressAn IP address is a unique number given to every device connected to the Internet or a network, like a street address for your computer. It helps other devices find and send information to it. For example, when you visit a website, your computer's IP address helps the website's server know where to send the information back to you.
• NetworkA network is a group of two or more computers or devices that are connected together to share information and resources. Think of it like a team where everyone can talk to each other and share things. For example, your home Wi-Fi connects your phone, laptop, and smart TV into one network.
• RouterA router is a device that directs internet traffic between your home network and the wider Internet. It's like a traffic cop for your data, making sure information goes to the right place. For example, your home router lets all your devices connect to the Internet and helps them talk to each other.
• ServerA server is a powerful computer that stores information and provides services or resources to other computers (called "clients") on a network. It's like a central library that holds all the books and lends them out when asked. For example, when you visit a website, the website's content is stored on a server, and that server sends the content to your web browser.
• URLA URL (Uniform Resource Locator) is the unique address for a specific website or web page on the Internet. It tells your web browser exactly where to find the information you're looking for. For example, "https://www.google.com" is the URL for the Google search engine's homepage.
• Web BrowserA web browser is a software application that allows you to access and view websites on the Internet. It translates the code of a website into something you can see and interact with. For example, Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge are all web browsers you use to open websites.
• WebsiteA website is a collection of related web pages (digital documents) that are stored on a server and can be accessed over the Internet using a web browser. It's like a digital book with many pages that you can flip through online. For example, Google.com is a website with many different pages for searching, images, and news.
• Wi-FiWi-Fi is a technology that allows devices like phones and laptops to connect to the Internet or other devices wirelessly, without needing cables. It uses radio waves to send and receive information. For example, when you connect your phone to the internet at a coffee shop without plugging it in, you're using Wi-Fi.

Threads 6

Where this connects to other fields, and why it's worth knowing.

• Global Governance & Collective Action Global Risks

  There's no world government, yet billions of devices on the internet somehow all follow the same rules. How? A group of engineers agrees on standards by 'rough consensus and running code,' basically whoever's idea works and most people accept. It's a real, working example of the whole planet cooperating with nobody officially in charge.

• International Relations Politics

  Nobody is 'in charge' of the internet, yet billions of machines cooperate smoothly. Countries live the same way: there's no world government forcing them to get along. In both cases, order doesn't come from a boss, it comes from shared rules everyone chooses to follow because going along beats going it alone.

• Empires & Imperial Power History

  The Persians built the Royal Road and the Romans set up relay stations so messages could gallop across the empire fast. That was their internet. And here's the catch: an empire can only grow as big as its messages travel quickly, because you can't rule what you can't reach in time. Every empire is really a communication network in disguise.

• Administrative Law Law

  'Net neutrality' means your internet provider has to carry everyone's data equally, no secretly slowing down sites it dislikes. That idea is ancient. Back in medieval times, the rule was that whoever owned the road, the mill, or the ferry had to serve everyone alike, or they could quietly pick winners and losers. An ISP is just the modern ferryman.

• Semiotics Media

  Before two computers send you a single video, they do a 'handshake': they agree on a shared code for what the signals mean. That's the exact same puzzle humans solve every time we agree what a word means. Every internet connection quietly re-solves the oldest problem in communication: how do we agree what a signal stands for?

• Market Failure & Externalities Economics

  When too many animals graze one shared field, it gets destroyed, everyone grabs before others do. The internet dodged that trap: its core rule (TCP) makes every connection politely slow itself down when the network gets crowded. It's a shared resource that survives because everyone voluntarily backs off, something fishermen and herders never pulled off.