Put simply the Internet is the place where the sum total of all human knowledge can be accessed. You may say that actually human knowledge can be found in books, writing, pictures and articles, which all existed long before the internet. This is true but the internet can lead you to where this information can be found. That is why I use the term "can be accessed" instead of "is stored". But what is the internet? A common misconception is that it is a massive computer hidden in a mountain range somewhere in America or India or Russia. In fact the information is stored on thousands of computers all around the world. Information about one particular subject might even be spread across several different computers in different countries. Some individuals permit their own computers to be used to store information that other people can access. Don’t worry, however, that your own computer might be being used in this way. You would have to give explicit permission to allow this to happen. One good example is where people participate in a scientific programme trying to solve a problem that would take years of computing power to answer. They offer up the spare processing time on their computers (such as at night time when they are not using it) to contribute to the programme. Here is one such project predicting climate. https://www.climateprediction.net/
Another fascinating project addresses the problem of trying to break 3 Enigma messages from WW2. Believe it or not several coded messages from U-Boats remain unbroken to this day! https://www.networkworld.com/article/2247101/still-trying-to-crack-nazi-enigma-messages.html
On the other hand, say that you share some information with others (perhaps by way of a post on Facebook for example), and the recipient then shares that with others who similarly republish it; you can see how several versions of that information can exist around the world thanks to the internet. Furthermore you may delete your initial post (having had second thoughts about it) but you can’t delete the many instances of its repetition around the internet. Thus the maxim that one must remember “What goes on the internet stays on the internet.”
This may help you to understand that the internet is not one big computer “in the sky” but exists as a massive collection of computers all connected by electronic communication. It is true that a great deal of the information is stored on massive computers. Amazon for example hold their information on lots of huge super computers (called ‘servers’) all interconnected. While we are about it, the expression I used about computers “in the sky” is maybe the origin of the other term for the internet that you often hear – ‘the Cloud’.
However, before you can access information on the internet there are some essential pre-requisites. First you must either own or have access to a computer. Of course the word computer can cover many different forms of device. I will look a little more at this another time. Second you require a means to connect your computer to the internet which means you have to have a contract with a telecommunications company who becomes your Internet Service Provider (ISP). Once you have connected you need a means of displaying information on your screen. This is called a Browser. Look out for more on this on another post.
Another fascinating project addresses the problem of trying to break 3 Enigma messages from WW2. Believe it or not several coded messages from U-Boats remain unbroken to this day! https://www.networkworld.com/article/2247101/still-trying-to-crack-nazi-enigma-messages.html
On the other hand, say that you share some information with others (perhaps by way of a post on Facebook for example), and the recipient then shares that with others who similarly republish it; you can see how several versions of that information can exist around the world thanks to the internet. Furthermore you may delete your initial post (having had second thoughts about it) but you can’t delete the many instances of its repetition around the internet. Thus the maxim that one must remember “What goes on the internet stays on the internet.”
This may help you to understand that the internet is not one big computer “in the sky” but exists as a massive collection of computers all connected by electronic communication. It is true that a great deal of the information is stored on massive computers. Amazon for example hold their information on lots of huge super computers (called ‘servers’) all interconnected. While we are about it, the expression I used about computers “in the sky” is maybe the origin of the other term for the internet that you often hear – ‘the Cloud’.
However, before you can access information on the internet there are some essential pre-requisites. First you must either own or have access to a computer. Of course the word computer can cover many different forms of device. I will look a little more at this another time. Second you require a means to connect your computer to the internet which means you have to have a contract with a telecommunications company who becomes your Internet Service Provider (ISP). Once you have connected you need a means of displaying information on your screen. This is called a Browser. Look out for more on this on another post.
