Context Magazine -- The 19th-Century Internet. "The sign of a truly mature technology is that it becomes invisible. You notice it only when something goes wrong: when the lights don’t come on, or when there is no dial tone. By mutating into easier-to-use technologies that were better suited to specific tasks, the telegraph threw off its nerdy origins. In the process, the telegraph became ubiquitous and was transformed into a variety of instant communications devices that have been almost unnoticed, but integral, parts of everyday life. The same will surely happen to the Internet." (via Tomalak)