Blowing Your Mind.

Have you ever wondered how the Internet crosses the ocean and connects us here on America with those, say, in England? I have to say that I also assumed things but never really sought out the answer.

The other day, I was on the subway listening to TED talks. I chose one called What is the Internet, really? And in a matter of minutes, my mind was literally blown. Andrew Blum brought up such a great question: where does the Internet come from? Like physically. How is someone in Portland, Oregon connected to someone in Africa? I also assumed that, like with television, the Internet was beamed (like Scotty) up into space then shot back down onto Earth.

Boy, oh, boy, was I wrong!

The Internet is connected through cables. Cables that run through the ocean...

...the ocean, people. Please tell me I'm not the only person on the planet that didn't know this.

So how does all the information travel that far, and so darn fast? I'll tell you! It's legit a ton of cables....traveling thousands of miles...through the ocean...

See those yellow lines?

Those yellow lines are cables that connect the continents with Internet. How much cable does it take to connect the west of of the United States to Asia? 6,200 miles. And how does all that cable get to all those places? Manually. With ships, subamrines and people, thousands upon thousands of miles of cables are laid to connect the world today. Now who said the Internet wasn't a physical thing?!

As the cables reach the distant shores intended, a diver swims the cable to shore and walks it to land. Then, the cable is literally plugged into a building. And there you have it! Internet! Now who thinks that was feircly interesting? Because I do.

Diagram.

Cool.

Long day at the office.

Now I highly recommend going to TED talks and finding that talk. It's only like 15 minutes long and really interesting.

Did you know that the Internet was connected by cables? Do you know any other intersting facts that I should know about?