Editor's Blog: Back to the future

Never let it be said that we at silicon.com don't go to extremes to get you the best stories.

We've abseiled down buildings, walked the tracks of the London underground at 2am and this week headed into London's Victorian sewers, all to make sure you are getting exclusives that no one else can bring you.

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So earlier this week I found myself in east London, getting kitted out in very big boots and a hard hat to visit a part of the Northern Outfall Sewer, built in 1862-3 and one of the city's six main interceptory sewers.

Once I had climbed down into the sewer I found the flow - and I think you know what that is made up of - was about knee high, though it can rise to six feet. I'm very grateful I wasn't visiting when it was that high.

You can see pictures of my trip into the Victorian sewers here.

It was a fantastic experience to visit this mighty Victorian edifice, which has stood the test of time, still doing its job more than 100 years after it was built. It was fascinating to visit this giant yet invisible network, spread beneath the capital.

Did it smell? Yes, a bit. Were there rats? No. (Apparently they prefer to keep to the drier parts of the network, I was relieved to hear.)

We have Joseph Bazalgette to thank for this sewer network consisting of the main brick sewers that run for nearly 100 miles and the network of a 1,000 miles of street sewers. Together these structures helped clean up London and end the Great Stink, when the smell of untreated sewage brought the city to a standstill in 1858.

It also helped tackle the cholera outbreaks plaguing the capital, costing thousands of lives each year.

So why the extended history lesson, you might be asking.

I was down there to check out a broadband network that is being routed through the sewer - much quicker than digging up the road. It's a neat twist, to see such an old network being reused in such a high-tech way, and it got me thinking about the legacy that today's technology will leave.

How many of the networks or technologies we are putting in place now will still be relevant or even remembered in 100 years' time?

Few companies, obliged to live quarter by quarter at the mercies of the market, will be thinking about 100 years down the line. And so much of the technology we use is doomed by its own in-built obsolescence - or relies on the intangible wireless - that I fear little will remain.

I'm not even sure what of today's technology will still be around in 100 years to consider exploiting. Satellites won't be going anywhere any time soon I guess, and perhaps the BT Tower will find a new use. Even the ageing satellite dishes of Goonhilly could be pressed back into service to support a technology we cannot even dream of yet.

Who knows. Perhaps the editor of silicon.com in 2108 will even write about a new use for the quaint old fibre networks built way back in the early 21st century…

Editor's choice - three things you should check out on silicon.com this week:

The latest instalment of 60-Second Pitch is now live on the site, and it's currently my favourite of all silicon.com video brands. Also, check out the latest entry in our exclusive Beijing Olympic diary written by the man who has to make it all work on the day. And if that's not enough, why not look inside Symantec's security operations centre.