Tech Was Never Post-Industrial

September 8, 2026, Opinion: "“The cloud” has such a nice ring to it. It connotes something fluffy, white, and ethereal that floats above the messy physical world. But the cloud has always been physical. It exists in data centers filled with servers and networking equipment powered by generators and connected via fiber optic cables that run (ironically) beneath streets and across ocean floors. The old cloud’s physicality has been comparatively easy to overlook, though, because no single part of it has been the public face of the whole. It is dispersed underground, behind security fencing, and inside buildings too generic-looking to register as a new industrial order."