Things you didn't know about the internet

THE INTERNET
It was born 40 years ago, in a lab at the University of California, Los Angeles. Today it wraps the entire planet and features in the daily routine of more than 1.5 billion people.

Of course, it's easy to take the internet for granted and forget that it's very much a work in progress.

So what forces are shaping it, how big has it grown, and will it ever evolve a mind of its own? To find out, New Scientist posed eight simple questions

1.
Unknown internet 1: Who controls the internet?
Does any one country or organisation control the internet?

The official answer is no one, but that’s a half-truth that few swallow…

2.
Unknown internet 2: Could the net become self-aware?
The internet's network structure is similar to that of the human brain

It is easy to draw parallels between the human brain and the internet’s complex network of nodes, so could conciousness be the next step?

3.
Unknown internet 3: How big is the net?

In 2008, Google announced that its systems had registered a trillion unique pages – but even this might represent only a fraction of what is out there

4.
Unknown internet 5: Is there only one internet?
The internet is a disparate mix of interconnected computers, united by communication languages

The internet is a disparate mix of interconnected computers, many of them on large networks run by universities, businesses and so on – so what unites them, if anything?

5.
Unknown internet 4: Did the credit crunch hit the web?
Even virtual worlds like Second Life have been hit by a recession

Real-estate prices crashing, a big drop in growth, the threat of infrastructure collapse, and authorities printing more money to stave off disaster – and that’s just the online world

6.
Unknown internet 6: Where are the net’s dark corners?

There are plenty of places online that you would do well to steer clear of

7.
Unknown web: Is the net hurting the environment?
The internet has its own carbon footprint, and it's a whopper

Sending an email across the Atlantic Ocean does not burn any jet fuel, but the internet is not without its own, huge carbon footprint

8.
Unknown internet 7: Could we shut the net down?
Even huge cyber-attacks have failed to bring down the net

When even the biggest cyber-attacks have failed to bring down the web, governments might not fare much better