system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: Why is there only one internet?

With all of the problems with our current internet, why are we unable to just "create a new one"?
gpt
Think of it like roads. Roads connect locations to each other, much like the internet connects computers and networks.

You can get from one place to another via many different routes, but they're all part of the same system of roads.

When one town has its own system of roads and builds a road to a freeway or something, it's connecting its "network" to the greater "internet."

Creating a new system of roads would require creating connections between towns that don't use the same roads that we already have - like building a second set of roads on top of our current set of roads. It would be redundant and expensive, and we wouldn't really gain much from it.

And, to answer your question, if we connect that series of roads to the current set of roads, they join the "internet" that already exists.

It makes a lot more sense to improve infrastructure that already exists, rather than building a new one. It's like the difference between filling potholes in the road you already have, instead of building a second road that takes a different route because the current one is a bumpy ride.