Are There “Tubes” in the Internet?

Over the spring break, I found a video of US senator Ted Stevens from Alaska giving a speech about the internet. On June 28, 2006, he was talking about an important bill on “Net Neutrality”. Passing this bill would make it so that internet providers could not limit what you see on the internet or what applications you use on the internet. He seemed very flustered and stuttered frequently. He was speaking out against this law because he thought that nobody should charge consumers for “massively invading this world of the internet.” As I listened on, it became more and more apparent to me that he had no idea what he was talking about.

He went on to describe how he thought Netflix worked by saying that “Netflix streams movies across the internet.” In reality, Netflix takes orders online and mails out the movies. So he thinks that Neflix does not use the postal system to send its movies, but that Netflix somehow teleports the movies through the internet to your mailbox! I was starting to worry about his common sense.

Finally, for his finishing statement he said “… and again the internet it not something you just dump something on, it is not a big truck, it’s, it’s a series of tubes. And if you don’t understand that those tubes can be filled, and if they’re filled when you put your message in, it gets in line, its going to be delayed by anyone who puts in that tube enormous amounts of material…” It seems that he is describing the air tubes at a drive through bank rather than the digital internet! At that point I was sure that he had absolutely no idea of how the internet works, yet he was publicly talking about it. I was not impressed.

This brings me to wondering how politicians who are uninformed succeed in getting voted into office. How does this Senator carry out his daily tasks when he thinks that it takes you days to send E-mails? He said himself that his secretary sent an E-mail to him three days earlier and that he didn’t receive it until the day of the speech when he checked his mailbox. I guess he knows so awfully little about the internet that he does not know that you receive mail when you open your mailbox. It is frightening that he is the chairman of the committee that is supposed to regulate the internet: Yes, the chairman!

I understand that he comes from a generation that grew up without the technology that today’s seven-year-olds know how to use, but if he doesn’t understand the subject, then he should not fill a leadership position for it. He may have been sharp 30 years ago, but today he is out of touch with the modern world.

So I ask everyone to be more careful about voting for candidates who are running for elected office in our government. You should make sure that you know what candidates think about issues by reading their position papers and by watching debates on TV. You should not just look at presidential candidates, but at all the candidates you will be voting for.

Be sure you know what they think about the specific issues that are important for this time in history, and see if you really agree with their views. If you do a little looking around a politician’s background, you can find out stupid things which you are not meant to see. You are responsible for the leaders you elect.