How the Internet Works: From Telegraphs to Submarine Cables
Networking and the Internet, from First Principles
I explore the invisible chain of conversions that lets us communicate instantly across continents, revealing how the Internet functions without a central controller. By tracing the evolution from the electrical telegraph to modern fiber optics, I show how discrete symbols and shared protocols allow billions of messages to navigate a decentralized network owned by dozens of independent companies.
I find it mind-boggling that we can communicate instantly with anyone in the world by doing nothing more than creating controlled, patterned disturbances of electricity, light, and radio.
- sudb
I found this article very well written, as a comparison
- mlhpdx
I know the guidelines make this a faux pas but I’m just here to say that was a great read. Very informative, well structured and compelling story of how we have networks and how they work.
To those saying it’s the work of an LLM: if it is I don’t care. It’s good.
- jdw64
I don't understand. Even if this post is long and has some repetitive parts, isn't it still written by a human? There are way too many comments acting like everything is bad just because one animation widget was made with AI.
I actually like this post. It looks good, the explanations are clear, and the AI-generated animation widget actually helps me understand things. What's the problem exactly? Is using AI for visualization considered a bad practice?
- leoc
The very first substantial order for the Digital PDP-1 was for use in ITT’s torn-tape messaging operation! https://www.eejournal.com/article/gordon-bell-1934-2024-gran...
- Fraterkes
I think it's perfectly possible that substance-wise this article was entirely written by the author, but comparing the style of the article to the style of the author's comments, I'm personally pretty sure the text has been significantly edited (cleaned up if you like) by ai.
Is that bad? Maybe not! But it's unfair to tar the people here pointing it out as paranoid.