Opte.org has recently completed an interesting project to map the TCP address layer of the internet. Some 4 294 967 296 (2³² for the non-savants) addresses exist, and the project has used some clever reduction techniques (and approximations) to reduce the relevant nodes by 8 orders of magnitude, allowing them to render the image in a mere 2 hours (as compared with several months using previous techniques)! The latest image is dated 23 November, and is available in all its pseudo-artistic glory here (warning: 2.8MB PNG file).

One interesting application of this technology, as noted by the project founder, is to model the effect of disasters (both natural and political) in terms of information flow. As nodes (addresses) become inactive, the shape of the addressable namespace changes to reflect the current distribution of information. So, for example, modelling changes in the shape of Middle Eastern IP addresses before and after the United States war in Iraq may allow a more accurate assessment of sociopolitical changes.

Unfortunately, this premise is flawed, because it ignores the fact that many sites are hosted external to the country in which they are maintained (this site is hosted in Virginia, United States, for example). Indeed, Iraq's most famous blogger is, according to an IP search, hosted in North Carolina, United States. Nonetheless, the maps are rather cool.