>> Those are just TLD name servers, nothing more. The Internet would
>> still work if those were to just disappear but it would be less useful
>> or easy to use than it is now.
>> Every server gets an IP address. That's what you really use to
>> connect. DNS is just there to translate human readable to machine >> readable.
> What you *really* use are binary digits represented as electronic
> signal levels on various types of wires and radio transmissions, but
> we don't make users modulate those manually, either.
That's the physical level that most people consider to be Freakin' Magic. And it isn't just modulated on wire or over the air, but via light in fiber optic cables.
And what about all the load balancing and fault tolerance that come
> from allowing a host name to resolve to multiple addresses and
> changing the mappings on the fly?
You could perform something similar with your hosts file. It's just that the explosive growth of the net meant the hosts files that SRI would transfer around got to be a bit too large.
Names are more than just a way to make things user-friendly, they're
> an important piece of the Internet architecture. I don't think
> there's ever been a network of more than a few dozen machines that
> didn't depend on a naming scheme to enhance the capabilities.
> Consider this: how useful would the phone be if you could only call
> people whose phone numbers you already knew, i.e. there were no phone
> books or directory assistance?
Right now there isn't anyone I know whose phone number is in a phone book. Between cell and VoIP it's damned near impossible to do a lookup these days unless the end user is smart enough to list their selves on a lookup site.