On Rough Type, Nick Carr reviews the "excellent" Who Controls the Internet? Illusions of a Borderless World, which refutes the idea that the Internet is somehow divorced from the imperatives of the physical world.

Some will read Who Controls the Internet? with relief, some with disappointment, others with disbelief. As the authors demonstrate, the impact of any new technology, even an extremely powerful one like the Internet, is filtered through existing geopolitical, economic, social, and cultural structures and norms. The technology may alter those structures and norms, but the structures and norms will alter the technology as well - until a new equilibrium emerges. Technology is powerful, but history is more powerful.