Wired for Reflection: Revisiting the Internet with Tubes

Andrew Blum’s Tubes: A Journey to the Center of the Internet is a fascinating book that promises to take readers to the physical heart of the internet. But as you turn the pages, it quickly becomes apparent that this is more than just a deep dive into the infrastructure of the web—it’s also a nostalgic look at how our digital world evolved.

Blum embarks on a quest to uncover the physical reality behind the internet, a system most of us think of as an intangible, cloud-like entity. He travels to data centers, submarine cable landing sites, and internet exchange points, meeting the engineers and network administrators who keep this vast system running. He brings to life the routers, fiber-optic cables, and buildings that serve as the Internet’s backbone, demystifying the notion that the web is some kind of ethereal presence.

But Tubes is not just about internet infrastructure—it’s a love letter to the Internet’s history. For those who grew up in the era of dial-up, BBS communities, terminal services, and the rise of broadband, Blum’s journey evokes a sense of nostalgia. The book recalls an internet that once felt more human-scale, when it was built by passionate technologists rather than dominated by massive corporations, data-hungry platforms, cyber-criminals, and nation states.

Reading Tubes, I found myself reminiscing about the early days of personal computing, when I was exploring systems with a dial-up modem, war-dialing in search of open connections, and even scrounging to find free dial-up time. Back then, the internet felt tangible—you could hear it in the screech of a 28.8 kbps modem or feel it in the weight of an Ethernet or phone cable. I remember the thrill of discovering bulletin board systems, dialing into university servers, and even tinkering with early packet-sniffing tools. Today, much of that awareness is gone; we simply expect connectivity, rarely stopping to consider the vast infrastructure that makes it possible.

For those who didn’t experience the Internet’s early days, its dial-up struggles, and its evolution into a dominant force, Tubes may feel less like a nostalgic journey and more like a structured exploration of infrastructure. While Blum aims to evoke an emotional connection to the Internet’s physicality, younger readers who have always known a seamless, ever-present online world may view the book more as a technical deep dive than a sentimental reflection.

So, is Tubes truly a journey to the center of the internet, or is it a walk down memory lane? The answer is both. It takes us to the physical locations where the internet lives, but it also reminds us of a time when the internet felt smaller, more open, and full of potential. In an era where much of the web is controlled by a handful of tech giants, Blum’s book is a refreshing reminder that, at its core, the internet is still a collection of tubes—built, maintained, and governed by people. And perhaps that’s the most important takeaway of all.

-- Matthew Wold