Scanners; communicators; computers – as exciting as the technology of the future can be, absolutely none of it matters without a constant connection to ... somewhere else. And the same goes for the technology of the present: every time you ask Alexa to play a song, or send your exercise stats to your Fitness Friends group chat, or navigate to a new part of town, you're relying on a connection that we used to call "going online" back when far fewer people were "on the internet." Here's how today's technology keeps most of the planet constantly connected.