When the Olympics 100m final was run on Sunday in an astonishing 9.63 seconds, more than four billion people around the world were able to watch. The amount of time it took to deliver the results to the global audience was, in fact, 30 times faster than the race itself—and at the same time, 15 other Olympic competitions were simultaneously having their results relayed. With the focus properly on the amazing athletics, I doubt that many viewers paused to wonder how that feat of information technology was possible.