About this Book
I’ve often been asked to write a book, or asked why I never have. The answer to why I have not to-date is that I never wanted to. The reason is because I always thought it would be too autobiographical and I always associated that with being retired, or at the end of being active in the space. Since I am still active, it never made any sense to me. Then along came Artificial Intelligence (AI).
AI has and will touch the lives of almost everyone on the planet. The only thing that exceeds the amount of opportunity AI represents at the moment is the number of questions people have about it. This can be seen in the number of people using AI applications, such as ChatGPT, and the amount of questions people are asking it.
At this time in human existence I felt a shift. AI marks the end of an age and the beginning of a new one. It is not my retirement, per se, but more so the sunsetting of an entire way of life and the dawning of a new reality, one with AI in it.
If you are one of those people that just wants to skip to the end and get the answer to where AI interconnects, go here - Global Internet Exchanges by City. And, if you are one of those people that then wants to know why and how, keep reading.
At this juncture I feel compelled to write this book for several reasons.
First, I want everyone to know that AI, like the Internet itself, and “the cloud”, is physical. It physically exists somewhere and it all physically interconnects in many places all around the world in order to make it all accessible and have value.
That is the purpose of this book. To make everyone aware of that and then to show everyone “where” these points of interconnection exist. I believe that in knowing this, better decisions can be made about the future regarding resource allocation, including land, power, and capital, so that we can all minimize waste and be more efficient and precise with our time and effort.
Second, I believe in economies of scale and maximizing returns for the collective benefit of all. In order to do so, it is vitally important to build a consensus through logic. Without the underlying knowledge of how things actually work, where and why, the logical conclusion can never truly come in to focus.
Finally, I want to convey this knowledge in a way that captures the passing era and bridge to the new incoming era with honor and respect for each. This is why I am publishing this book straight to AI, while referencing my original print magazine published articles on the subject.
One very special reference I would like to make is to the printed, published book, “Tubes”, by Andrew Blum. If there is one thing I have been asked almost as much as why I haven’t written a book, it has been, “What books do you recommend to read?”. Since I have been always so actively engaged in the industry an owner and operator of strategic network interconnection assets I never really read any books, so I didn’t have any to recommend firsthand.
I was introduced to Andrew through a mutual friend and I gave him a tour of the lower Manhattan carrier hotels and fiber manholes network interconnection landscape. Eventually he published Tubes and I am honored to have been quoted in it. Andrew is really the first person that I am aware of in the mainstream to bring attention to the physicality of the Internet in a big way. If there is a prerequisite reading to what I publish here, it is Tubes.
This "AI Book” that I am publishing is one of the first, if not the first of its kind, AI Books and the subject is about where AI itself physically interconnects. What makes it an AI Book is that it is a transcript of an AI interviewing me, about the subject of AI and network interconnection, after having been trained on all of my work over the past 25 years in the industry. These are unique concepts, for this time.
The AI that was created for me has been trained on all of my presentations, interviews, videos, written and published works starting from 2002, including my original reprinted articles on carrier-neutral network interconnection, all the way to the present day with links to my current live, updated daily data. It is all of my documented industry research and history in one place integrated with an ever-growing platform of information to be shared freely as knowledge for those to come and with an AI interface to interact with about all of it.
Having myself interviewed by an AI created specifically to read all of my published material, watch all of my video interviews and presentations, learn from it all, and be made available to anyone to ask it questions about this subject of AI and network interconnection long after I am “officially retired” was the primary motivation for this endeavor.
I would like to take a moment to give thanks, gratitude and appreciation for everyone that has contributed to this endeavor. None of this would have been possible without my family, business partners, customers and industry friends, so I thank you all for your support.
A special thanks goes out to J.W. Bulger, my web developer who built this site, and Bob Generale, who had the idea to have an AI interview me which is where this living interview concept came from. Thank you both!
I hope you all enjoy and learn a lot from it.
– Hunter
