A young engineer explained that the lights represented all of the Internet searches taking place across the world, and each color represented a different language.

BEFORE the end of next year the Internet will collapse, predicted Bob Metcalfe, a noted network engineer now turned venture capitalist, in a magazine column in 1995.

"Unless we're willing to rethink today's Internet," says Nick McKeown, a Stanford engineer involved in building a new Internet, "we're just waiting for a series of public catastrophes."