Modern Legacy¶
In 2012 the global distribution of Internet connectivity still looked strikingly Atlantean:
Two years later, Alissa Walker at Gizmodo asks (rhetorically):
Where is the internet? This map might explain it better than any
statistics could ever hope to: The red hot spots show where the
most devices that can access the internet are located.
On the new map, too, the Pacific Century has yet to dazzle. It seems
that infrastructure — even the most advanced digital infrastructure
— incarnates a legacy, rather than virtuality (or potential). By
accentuating the Internet-of-Things, the new map has actually dulled
the digitization of emerging markets, drawing vision back on a
retro-futural path to the historical roots of the modern world
order. (The color scheme also tends to under-emphasize the spiky
urban-concentrations of the Asian Internet, relative to the more
diffuse Euro-American distribution.)
Follow the Gizmodo link for various image options, including alternative Internet visualizations (such as these, and — from the comments — this).