The physicalness of the internet has been all up-in-our-faces these last couple days: a nation, it turns out, can just unplug itself, and corporate citizens of the world's great democracies help out. [See, however, Vodafone's current explanation.]
The Atlantic has a fascinating piece on the infrastructure of the internet. All that data travels through relatively few nodes, it seems. Why some nodes and not others? Undoubtedly the answer is history.
I can't help but think of that first trans-atlantic cable.
Of course, I recognize the little slip above: cutting off the internet and the cell-phone were separate activities. It's much less clear to me exactly how the internet got switched off in Egypt...
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