Computer Scientist Explains the Internet in 5 Levels of Difficulty | WIRED

The internet is the most technically complex system humanity has ever built. Jim Kurose, Professor at UMass Amherst, has been challenged to explain the internet to 5 different people; a child, a teen, a college student, a grad student, and an expert.
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[@kaanefe4266]

Mr. Kurose's textbooks are legendary. He taught for millions. A good man.

[@tannerblake7745]

I just stumbled on this video and was blown away that he in in it... I'm currently taking a computer networking course in Texas an we're using Kurose's material for most of the class.

[@blaze556922]

As a Dad of a youngster I have to say this guy is an amazing teacher when dealing with the first young lady. She was so bright

[@danceswithdirt7197]

When she was talking about routing and getting around broken/messed up links it made me so very happy.

[@pinolskun8764]

i have seen 25 year olds struggle with coming up with the "one of the nodes may break" answer, she is very intelligent

[@vectoralphaAI]

always surprised by asians, theyre always so smart.

[@pinolskun8764]

@@vectoralphaAI why bring in her race? Just talk about the person...

[@dfgaJK]

You could see he was enthralled and slightly astounded by the acuteness of her response.

[@allthingstoallmen8912]

I like how as he moves up the levels it's less of him explaining and more asking questions and listening.

[@ghostmist6]

I picked up on this too and it is the sign of an ever-learning and humble person. Inspirational man.

[@MrJoegotbored]

For other readers who may be interested, this is described by some as a Socratic teaching method. It's a practice widely employed in professional programs of study, such as law, medicine, and computer science, but also by some schools at the undergraduate level. The idea is to teach the student how to learn by using a series of ever more precise questions to guide them to an inescapable conclusion. It's extremely effective, especially at higher levels where students may know quite a bit, sometimes more than the professor in certain areas of the subject.

[@nicoleraheem1195]

His body language changed with each level too. Just look at his legs and feet.🙂

[@maximiliankuechen]

I’m a UMass Amherst student and I’ve taken classes with Jim. He’s a amazing professor!

[@arbaran01]

I'm a prospective student and that's so cool to hear! :)

[@patriciamb90]

*an ahhhh it felt good to correct a smarty pants :P

[@brodynwilson4589]

⁠​⁠@@patriciamb90how are they a “ smarty pants” all they did was say they want to attend a college. Also they were right, you only use an if the word after it starts with a vowel and p is a Constant

[@metzli5797]

​@brodynwilson4589 I assume he was talking to the original poster. "A amazing". Still shows some insecurity on his part that he feels that a random college student is a "smarty-parts". Inferiority complex much?

[@brodynwilson4589]

@@metzli5797 oh lmao, that makes more sense.

[@basslin3r]

I'm a network engineer and I wanted to put here a cool little bit of information for you all. The internet mostly runs on a protocol called TCP (transmission control protocol) This protocol is part of the 7 layers of the OSI (open systems interconnect) model. the layers are 1. physical 2. data 3. network 4. transport 5. session 6. presentation 7. application When I was first learning about these layers I came up with the perfect acronym to remember it and i've never forgotten 25 years on. "People Don't Need To See People Anymore" Physical data network transport session presentation application PDNTSPA Because of the internet - people don't need to see people anymore.

[@TheBiscuitFactory]

I’ll remember this. Thank you

[@pranavps851]

That is great. Thank you

[@ben_car_8115]

I wish I had learned that (or a similar) acronym when I was learning those layers

[@nikethanavattikunta6147]

Wow, the acronym really suits it!

[@Syv_]

You should be hired at NASA for your acronym making skills.

[@_tim____]

I don't know about you but that Knock Knock joke was such a nice analogy and really stresses what a good communication skill this Prof has.

[@ParaPanos]

I have Mr. Kurose's textbook as an electrical engineering student and it is excellent. He is an amazing teacher.

[@funkygecko]

Me too dude! Thanks for bringing that up I wouldn't have realized.

[@SALESPRODUCTIONS]

Skylar ( the 1st girl ) already understands the internet - on her own - and is very bright. She deduced the point of it right away - ( multiple nodes in case of one not working ) and even understood conservation of energy / time and productivity goals. She likely understands the internet WAY better than the majority of the population. ( I will also point out that one of the original goals was to create something that had so many nodes on it that people could still communicate in the event of a catastrophe ) See DARPA etc . . You could also see the interviewer laughing and being a bit shocked at her deep level of understanding she worked out on her own and mentioned right away.

[@paulshi2821]

LETS GOOOOOO THAT'S MY NETWORK PROFESSOR

[@DonovanPresents]

I love how I learned the most at level 1 with the child for some reason 🤯

[@pagemaestro]

I took a course in uni where I read Kurose's book "Computer Networking". It's so heartwarming to see him so passionately break down the complex procedures that go into understanding the internet on a level that non-tech savvy people can understand. I have respect for people at the top of their field, but an immensely larger respect for people who have the capacity to educate even the least knowledgable people about their field. Way to be, Jim, way to be

[@smalldog1]

Used Computer Networking: A Top-Down Approach in my networking course in college. Great book written by Dr. Kurose, thank you!

[@MustafaBerkeGureltol]

He was my professor. The class was awesome.

[@herxsie]

you lucky guy! may I ask you which class he imparted?

[@MustafaBerkeGureltol]

@@herxsie Computer Networks. I took it last summer and got an A on it!

[@jadeyjung]

the most "wired" talk of this series

[@otaviocomputing]

I am a Comp Eng undergraduate in Brasil and I have been following professor Kurose's classes! He really is a big reference in the area. Besides being an amazing teacher!

[@_stephanie]

I love the way Jim spoke to the child, easily understood without condescending, you can tell he's a great teacher

[@janetf23]

Prof. Kurose is the best listener I've witnessed in ages.👏👍✌

[@KissTheGreat]

He was so impressed with Skylar it was really cute!

[@danitajaye7218]

wonderful! The speed of change is amazing. I've been in IT since 1980, and you can't even fathom really how very far things have come. It started changing, and then changes happened faster and faster, exponentially. I'm happy to be a newly retired developer, lol. Enough learning new language/processes, etc., every year. :)

[@ZuckThat]

So cool to see professor kurose's explanations at each level of difficulty. He's such a patient and effective communicator!

[@quanleanh6548]

The core CS fundamentals: Networking, OS and basic DataStructures & Algorithms are always the most interesting subjects. Sadly it took me years to finally understand this simple fact.

[@programmersenja]

The professor sure is outstanding but Skylar is indeed very smart kid for that age

[@iShantaram]

WIRED please bring more Educational Episodes like these I loved it.💙

[@sydneystratis9121]

I took Jim's class last semester! Lovely human and amazing teacher. So happy to see him on WIRED

[@maxeeem]

Which class was it? I can't seem to find any of his classes at UMass.

[@sydneystratis9121]

@@maxeeem info 203: a networked world

[@maximiliankuechen]

Also CS453

[@ellomate..]

he deserves to be called a professor, lol.

[@sweiveerf4359]

@@ellomate.. 🙄🙄

[@roelofhoeksema4657]

If you want to learn more: I can highly recommend typing his name into youtube. He has a quite extensive series explaining the internet in more detail!

[@thieltube390]

This guy wrote the textbook in my networking class, great teacher!

[@yashgarg4864]

Literally spent last night reading Dr. Kurose textbook yesterday for my Endsems today, and here he is on wired. amazing man

[@umaodihirin5879]

In 10:35 I believe the uni student was referencing the OSI model which has 7 layers and explains theoretically how devices exchange data over the internet. As an IT Pro with 10 years od exp, I had some great takeaways here. Amazing video 👏🏾

[@yaknowjoshua1451]

I know im six months late but in case you see this i think this could be a very cool bit of information! What the college student was reffering to here was actually the private encryption keys that ICANN has associated with the "trust anchor" (the public encryption key for the entire internet). Essentially there is a harddrive locked away in an ICANN building that is only accessible with certain key cards that are locked in seven different physical boxes, requiring "seven keys". There is a really great video i watched about it a while back called "The seven people who can turn off the internet" by the channel named Half as Interesting that talks about it!

[@hiyozumi]

I thought i was wrong when seeing the thumbnail, but i just remembered that my professor used Mr. Kurose's lecture videos in our class when he was absent, salute 👍🏻

[@LoneWolf-py7ps]

His way of explantion and understanding on that subject is actually very inspiring to me

[@akialter]

Even though Im not in Dr. Kurose class but he has taught me computer networks through his videos. I love his analogies to real life and his enthusiasm in teaching

[@orah12185]

Amazing discussion. I appreciate the information. My skills are dated, but I understood the essence of each discussion. Thanks.

[@1993dana15]

Jim is an excellent teacher. Im also following his video tutorials for one of my master course works. He explains complex concepts precisely and to the point

[@husseinjafarinia224]

This guy and his colleague are probably the coolest guys for almost anyone taking a networking course with their wonderful topdown approach book.

[@carlosmspk]

2:29 Scarlet completely nailing the question about network routing redundancy was like... This girl's going places

[@17johari]

As a Network Engineer, this video is gold!

[@CriticalJur]

at 2:37 he was like: "Woah this kid is a genius." XD

[@mankindspatience]

I'm taking a Computer networks class right now, and we are using his book/slides. And since covid happened, he made online videos explaining them for free. Such a beast, mans is goated!

[@thethebest3263]

He’s so great!! Wish more people were as curious and patient like he is!

[@TheToaster101]

He's currently one of my Professors, kind of cool seeing him here.

[@rgarlinyc]

Brilliant expositions - at ALL levels - as usual! The smart kids questions and insights are delightful - as usual! 👏🏻👏🏻

[@pkaulf]

The discussion on SDN was good. As someone who does it in their day job, I would strongly recommend anyone looking to get into a networking career to have SDN knowledge/experience.

[@chimdi]

This is one of my FAVORITE series!!! Thank you Wired!!!

[@jennav5005]

massive respect to anyone who is studying this type of subject.. i could never

[@superiortoall22]

I’m a network engineer and there are times where I’m like “am I really understanding what exactly that I’m doing?” but in the conversation with the expert, I understand everything and can relate to most of the topics!

[@ginichimaru001]

This is actually pretty good.

[@coolbluesman]

It's funny how college undergrad level is the same as it was in the late 90s. Back then you'd know the basic nuts and bolts of the network, provided you were paying the slightest bit of attention, simply because it was in its infancy, and there was a bulk of highly visible information about how the system worked. Kids today haven't been told about what's under the hood.

[@monzerfaisal3673]

Yes while it's unfortunate, I guess that's evolution of all inventions right? At the start you have to be technical to use it and it takes effort

[@coolbluesman]

@@monzerfaisal3673 indeed

[@anveshsawarn203]

Its great to see Jim Kurose. Read his Top Down Approach Book. His lectures are also pretty interesting.

[@DJ_G-Rod]

Great video thanks for the upload!

[@eurafrican85]

Wish this professor could teach me everything. He's awesome

[@CROXoDyLE]

So thankful to have him as my professor right now at Umass

[@ramilaj]

Fantastic progression in depth of breadth! The conversations are all excellent. Thank you!

[@sjcwoor]

The six year old had a better idea of BGP or even OSPF than the teen when she alluded to redundancy. LOL. Level 3 seemed lost at the end in regards to contention ratios. It's amazing because I've got a three year old nephew and I feel like by the time he's my age, he's gonna be way far ahead of where I am now, just due to the technology he's grown up with.

[@Min-ou8ti]

I actually got A and A- with two courses on internet with this professor's textbook. Props to him!

[@anshulsingh7663]

Welp time to sign up for his course next semester

[@Vector99]

Wow glad to see Prof. Kurose here! His Top Down Approach to Computer Networking book is literally a masterpiece for IT students.

[@mingy7017]

Imagine the little girl being a professor at UMass

[@kaustabc7562]

Dr Kurose wrote THE textbook for any undergraduate level networks course. Great to see him here!

[@faresalhawaj9936]

The hair, the glasses, and the blue shirt all make him look like he works at genius bar. The only difference is he's actually genius.

[@Niels_Mortensen]

In my time studying to become a network engineer, i have never met a lecturer/professor, who was not an embarrasing dad type who you can't help but instantly fall in love with

[@mikaelabowler]

This was cool to watch as a UMass alum :) Clarifying question: 'flattening' of the internet is bad, right? Good in the sense that you might have to jump fewer networks / speeds might be faster, but bad because then ownership is less decentralized? Also, would love to see the two experts explain VPNs!

[@vtheory7531]

I hope they can do a 5 levels video on cyber security. I think it's quite a big topic and it'll be interesting to see it explained in the different levels of depth

[@jillianhanlon7868]

The best of the series to date, hands down

[@sangamxghimire]

Awesome Video Keep on uploading educational videos like this

[@-chloe-8728]

Skylar is very bright and naturally curious. She’ll be great in whatever field interests her!

[@LeeDee5]

I would love to take one of his classes.

[@MichaelFikiri]

the best video that i have watched concerning the internet so far .

[@rayosas1662]

Dr. Kurose is a Takumi in network world. If you are studying in UMass, I recommend you to take his INFO203 as a network intro course.

[@impushprajyadav]

Make a episode on economics explained in 5 levels ✍️🙏

[@robinsuj]

Holy carp, that first kid was super smart

[@SB-rl4jn]

The Internet is the Greatest Invention to date. Thank You, Bob Kahn and Vint Cerf. 🇺🇸

[@nitekid6209]

I disagree

[@zbatchDOC]

Bold statement. Idk about best. The internal combustion has done a lot of good. As has soap, electricity, and penicillin.

[@rabihkhalil9025]

No bitcoin is a better invention 😜

[@unnamedchannelowouwu]

In fact without agriculture we would still be walking across the planet for food, I think IT is the most important invention of the humanity

[@gus473]

@@zbatchDOC Let's not forget refrigeration, synthetic fertilizers and wastewater treatment.....! 🤔✌🏼😎

[@SomewhatAcoustic]

At 10:35 when the guy asks about "7 keys" to the internet I think he meant 7 layers of the OSI model.

[@thomasschoeck9080]

Hearing about the number seven reminded me of the OSI Reference Model.

[@408sophon]

college student may have been asking about the osi layered model when it comes to '7' name system

[@shadebug]

I worry about some of the things that were surprising that final year undergrad

[@metzli5797]

The "seven keys" bit is referring to the idea that 7 different people hold a key to the cipher protecting the encryption behind HTTPS. Still no idea how much truth there is to it, but thats what it is referring to.

[@jamesreina5203]

grad student is going places

[@orionthatman9390]

The conversation with the grad student started to sound like gibberish ngl 😂

[@hudson]

You guys need to do Gödel’s incompleteness theorem

[@luciamartinez_business]

Great Job Skylar you are smart as always !👏

[@rayage777]

The grad student should look into PKI for the IoT devices. Then you wouldn't need to constantly setup when you move.

[@thorvaldspear]

The child was more observant than many adults I know 💀

[@isaacgibbs5832]

😮😮😮😮😮 I had him as a Prof

[@thomaslisankie342]

Fantastic video.

[@aalever]

7:26 - I was surprised to learn that Netflix use TCP instead of UDP.

[@windrush104]

Does the innernet have any relation to the internet?

[@jennypeters2178]

This is the first time I actually understood most of the levels

[@Rajivrocks-Ltd.]

I found it funny that he was so impressed when the child made such spot on remakrs xD

[@JericBrual]

The way he described the internet to Skylar was actually REALLY good. I’m impressed. Kinda surprised Nicholas didn’t know about ARPANET, especially as a comp sci student. Also, Nicholas probably watched this video when he mentioned the “seven keys to the internet” - kzbin.info/www/bejne/bHync6OkbcuKbZo

[@_xiper]

No offense to him but the compsci student didn't seem to have any clue whatsoever.

[@1.4142]

That college guy was talking about an HAI video

[@Lecksite]

I'm a computer expert but not in networking. Everything is interesting in this video but the most interesting in my opinion is When Things become more agnostic meaning they are not locked into a single governing entity or governing device over Hardware or software like has been in the past

[@elikohler6165]

Great teacher!

[@margefoyle6796]

Excellent!

[@skurt21]

Level 2 Q: how is it so fast? A: it's like a route system and there are intersections... Just like when I was in college. Brilliant and useful answer...just not to my question. And then in the test: if router A have a throughput of X and line B have a length of Y, what is the reliability of your neighbours HDD?

[@Applecitylightkiwi]

Agreed he should have mentioned cdn

[@deanjohnson7283]

The "Seven keys to the internet" with the college student... He is referring to the OSI model. The seven "keys" are the different layers of the OSI model, Physical, Data Link, Network, Transport, Session, Presentation and Application

[@SebDowntown]

that is a great question...

[@shakiyagotdreams2299]

Good stuff

[@love.sinayo]

I have no doubt in my mind that i’d do exceptionally well with him being my mentor.

[@noodlesthe1st]

I love scrubbing towards the end of these videos and truly seeing that I don't understand anything of what they're saying.

[@gethaunted]

Sometimes I do this by reading Wikipedia articles about upper level math I don’t understand, it’s great

[@berniezenis4876]

The undergrad student may have been asking about the 7-level network stack. (See the OSI model for more info.) Him saying "keys" would have thrown me off too, if I had not already been thinking about the stack. I think the grad student's "kb per second" referred to kilo-bytes per sec, not kilo-bits per sec. Wired overlaid the latter. Easy mistake to make. Network speeds are normally expressed in bits/sec.

[@minecraftmariomania9668]

The undergrad student may also be talking about the seven "keys" or cryptographic keys that protects the DNS system and can enable/disable it

[@MurtuzaBookwala]

I think this refers to the popular conspiracy theory that if the internet ever 'shutdown' due to a global event (war?), 7 people hold 7 keys that all need to be inserted somewhere and turned at the same time to reboot the internet :)