In his book Tubes: A Journey to the Center of the Internet, Andrew Blum wanted to capture the "spirit of place" of the Internet. Because as far-reaching and virtual as our connection to the Net is, the signals travel on good old-fashioned cabling, glass fibers jacketed in polymer, running through conduit under streets. The immaterial Internet runs on a very material, industry-like infrastructure. So that when Alaska senator Ted Stevens called the Internet "a series of tubes" ... well, he was kind of right, and he did inspire the title of this utterly fascinating book, which explores the switches, data centers, sea crossings and many, many tubes that make up our online reality.
Blum is a writer for Newsweek, and has written for Wired, Popular Science, Metropolis and more.
Learn more about Tubes:
Read excerpts on submarine cables and Internet exchange points (like 60 Hudson in NYC).
Browse book club materials (from the Amherst Reads book club)
Listen to Andrew Blum's audio interview on Fresh Air
“Like some heroic cartographer from a Borges story, Andrew Blum plunges into the unseen ether of the Internet. You will never open an e-mail in quite the same way again.” — Tom Vanderbilt
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