Introduction
You type “translate lorem ipsum” into Google’s search bar and press Enter. Roughly 200 milliseconds later, ten blue links and a translation widget appear on your screen. In that fifth of a second, your keystrokes triggered a cascade of protocols, each handing off to the next like relay runners passing a baton across the planet. A name was resolved, a connection negotiated, encryption established, a request dispatched, routed through a dozen machines, answered, and rendered — all before you could blink twice.