The physics of the Web

The internet appears to have taken on a life of its own since the National Science Foundation in the US gave up stewardship of the network in 1995, and an increasing number of scientists have begun to ask an unexpected question: what exactly did the authors create?

Abstract

The internet appears to have taken on a life of its own ever since the National Science Foundation in the US gave up stewardship of the network in 1995. New lines and routers are added continually by thousands of companies, none of which require permission from anybody to do so, and none of which are obliged to report their activity. This uncontrolled and decentralized growth has turned network designers into scientific explorers. All previous Internet-related research concentrated on designing better protocols and faster components. More recently, an increasing number of scientists have begun to ask an unexpected question: what exactly did we create?