Movies That Changed My Life 2: The Matrix (What is the Internet?)

The internet is and isn't real. You can describe all of the machinery, the servers, the routers and cables and that does not accurately describe what it is.

The internet is data. The infinite sea generated by humans as they walk through life. It is the flotsam we leave in our wake whether intentional or not, but it is not itself us. It is not itself reality, but merely a facsimile. An aggregate of all the other facsimiles of reality, the sounds, videos, images, words and numbers we use to make sense of all that we can not personally observe.

They create an image of reality, an image of reality we use to make decisions and communicate ideas as if it were reality yet that image is nothing more than a easily accessible representation, a constantly shifting shadow upon a wall.