[caption id="attachment_2046" align="alignright" width="300"]Schematic of the Roman internet, er, road network Schematic of the Roman internet, er, road network[/caption]

Terence Eden asks why the Romans didn't invent the internet:


It's an interesting counterfactual, but I think the better answer is that the Romans did invent the internet in a manner of speaking. The Roman road network was an incredible innovation for its time. Thanks to the ORBIS project at Stanford, we can gain a better appreciation for how significantly Roman roads reduced the cost and time required to travel. Robert Gonzalez describes how many variables you can manipulate in the simulations:


You can try the interactive maps for yourself here.