How the Metaphor of “the Cloud” Changed Our Attitude Toward the Internet

As a metaphor, the cloud seems easy to grasp: our data is somewhere in the ether, floating, drifting and wireless, available where and when we need it. The term is evocative because it is the opposite of the hard, material world of plugs and cables, disk drives and superhighways. But the thing about a cloud, Tung-Hui Hu reminds us in his mesmerizing new book, “A Prehistory of the Cloud,” is that you can only see it from a distance.Why do we place our faith in a symbol that is so ephemeral?
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