Andrew Blum

A chronicle of the Internet's development explores behind the scenes to see the heart of the Internet itself, from the room in Los Angeles where the Internet came to life to the Pacific Northwest, where Google, Microsoft, and Facebook have built huge data centers.

A Journey to the Center of the Internet

Tubes

Colton McCurdy

Aaron Lewis

D VA

You write an email. You hit send. It appears ten thousand miles away. How did that happen? In April 2011, a seventy-five year old woman deprived Armenia of its internet access when she sliced through a buried cable with her garden spade. That January, Egyptian authorities simply switched off 70% of the country's internet connections in an attempt to quell a revolution. In 2009, a squirrel chewed through a wire in Andrew Blum's backyard, slowing his broadband to a trickle and catapulting him on a quest to find out what this so-called 'internet' actually is. This is the Internet as you've never seen it before. It's not a concept. It's not a culture. It's most certainly not a cloud. It's a bunch of tubes. But what tubes . . . Hundreds of thousands of miles of fibre-optic cable, criss-crossing the globe, pulsing with trillions of photons of light, linking us via anonymous exchanges in secretive locations with vast data-warehouses. Andrew Blum takes us behind the scenes of this hidden world and introduces us to the remarkable clan of insiders and eccentrics who design and run it everyday. He explains where it is, how it got there, what it looks like, how it works - and what happens when it breaks. 'Every web site, every email, every instant message travels through real junctions in a real network of real cables. It's all too awesome to behold. Andrew Blum's fascinating book demystifies the earthly geography of this most ethereal terra incognito.' Joshua Foer, author of Moonwalking with Einstein

Behind the Scenes at the Internet

Ben Cardy

The Internet. Home to the most important and intimate aspects of our lives. Our careers, our relationships, our selves, all of them are out there - online. So, where is that exactly? 'The Internet really IS a series of tubes! Who knew?' David Pogue, The New York Times 'Utterly engrossing. Even the most geek-wary of readers will enjoy' Independent _____________ In Tubes Andrew Blum takes us on a gripping backstage tour of the real but hidden world of the Internet, introducing us to the remarkable clan of insiders and eccentrics who own, design and run it every day. He uncovers the secret data warehouses where our online selves are stored, peels back the wires that transport us across the globe, reveals its mammoth hubs and surprising alley-ways, explaining what the Internet actually is, where it is, how it got there - and, yes, what happens when it breaks. _____________ 'Entertaining and illuminating. Excels at rooting the Internet in real-world locations. Full of memorable images that make its complex architecture easier to comprehend' Observer 'An excellent introduction to the nuts and bolts of how exactly it all works' Economist 'Blum is perhaps the millennial generation's John McPhee, chronicling an arcane journey of deep relevance to everyday life' Forbes 'All too awesome to behold. Andrew Blum's fascinating book demystifies the earthly geography of this most ethereal terra incognita' Joshua Foer, author of Moonwalking with Einstein 'Compelling and profound. You will never open an e-mail in quite the same way again' Tom Vanderbilt, author of Traffic

Aaron Chan

Luca Conti

K. Mike Merrill

Marisa Eikenberry

Anna Pinto

Christian Bering Pedersen

“Andrew Blum plunges into the unseen but real ether of the Internet in a journey both compelling and profound….You will never open an email in quite the same way again.” —Tom Vanderbilt, New York Times bestselling author of Traffic In Tubes, Andrew Blum, a correspondent at Wired magazine, takes us on an engaging, utterly fascinating tour behind the scenes of our everyday lives and reveals the dark beating heart of the Internet itself. A remarkable journey through the brave new technological world we live in, Tubes is to the early twenty-first century what Soul of a New Machine—Tracy Kidder’s classic story of the creation of a new computer—was to the late twentieth.

Tubes A Journey to the Center of the Internet

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