Brian Worthen of CIO magazine [via digg] throws up a complicated and colorful map of the North American Internet backbone. It’s basically a representation of a bunch of fiber optic cable and 100,000+ routers. (Full PDF version available for download here)

The map is color coded by ownership, with Verizon and AT&T taking up sizable, but not dominating positions of ownership. Worthen goes on to detail net neutrality and something or other, but I was too busy peering at the pretty colors. The map is reminiscent of neuron imagery which I’m certain was intentional.

All of this made me wonder… Are we just building a network, or the foundation of a brain? And if a brain it is, who is the host?

Then it hit me: We’re building a brain for Unicron, the only planet-sized Transformer. This is yet another reason why we need to conserve oil. Unicron only gets about 1.5mpg.