Read the internet as a planetary nervous system, and it falls into ten layers — from the atoms and photons that carry signals, up to the planet's emerging ability to model itself.
Atoms, photons, electrons that carry every signal.
e.g. Submarine cables, copper traces, photonic chips.
The power that keeps every neuron of the planet firing.
e.g. Grids, dams, reactors, solar farms feeding datacenters.
The conduction of signals across the planet.
e.g. Submarine cables, towers, satellites, peering exchanges.
Where the planet's thinking actually happens.
e.g. Hyperscale datacenters, GPU clusters, edge devices.
Where everything the planet has ever recorded lives.
e.g. Object storage, archives, vector indexes, model weights.
How the planet feels itself.
e.g. Satellites, IoT, smartphones, lidar, biosensors.
Where reasoning, planning, and synthesis happen.
e.g. Foundation models, agents, reasoning chains.
What the planet decides to look at next.
e.g. Recommendation systems, feeds, ranking, alerts.
How the planet acts on what it knows.
e.g. Markets, ledgers, supply chains, autonomous agents.
The substrate's emerging ability to model itself.
e.g. Whole-Earth digital twins, civilizational simulations.