Let us follow the path of a kilobyte of information as it travels through the modern communication network. We shall start at the main processor of an X-show.

From there it travels through fiber optic wires, tracing a path under the ground until it reaches a transmitter.

The transmitter gathers a bunch of kilobytes and shoots the suckers into the atmosphere, propelling them past a sea of fliers, through the network of Cleaners operating around the world, past the outer levels of the earth's protective layer until it reaches a satellite. Then the satellite eats one of the kilobytes that tells it where the hapless data has to travel.

Once...