The Cloud makes one of its first appearances in a nondescript diagram in the 1996 MIT research paper. Almost everything we do, both online and offline, connects to the cloud. In part two of this series, we learned that rare earth elements like neodymium play a major role in the infrastructure of the cloud. The landing from the digital onto the material is hard. It comes with a cruelty and intensity we haven't even begun to properly understand.
Our series concludes with some revelations. Metahaven uses the story of Wikileaks to show us the infrastructure of the cloud and its super-jurisdictional powers. The BBC’s Paul Mason takes us on a wild tour of China in his novel Rare Earth. And a pile of iPhones brings your host a moment of clarity.
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