[ih] The Sub-atomic Physics of The Internet

[Jack Haverty]

We know that molecules are made of atoms, and atoms are made of quarks,
and somewhere you get strings and other stuff I personally don't know
much about.   I saw this infographic and it struck me as an interesting
snapshot of the current internal "subatomic" structure of The Internet -
not our traditional technical structure of circuits, routers et al, but
the internal social structure of the population of The Internet.

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/visualizing-the-social-media-universe-in-2020/

It slso strikes me as a snapshot of how The Internet is fragmenting as
it evolves.  Where once being "on the Internet" meant you could easily
interact with everyone else on the net, now there are dozens of disjoint
communities within the Internet, who mostly cannot readily interact with
each other.

It reminds me of the original situation which was motivation for
building the ARPANET - fixing the problem of needing to have multiple
terminals in your office to connect and communicate with separate
organizations.   A mantra of the Internet project(s) back in the 80s was
to build a system that enabled every computer, no matter where it was,
to communicate with every other computer.

Unfortunately, it seems IMHO today that even if two computers can
communicate, their human users often cannot.   Perhaps someday someone
will build a "social gateway" that restores connectivity among the 4+
billion Internet users.

/Jack Haverty