The word “ultralight” simply means “extremely lightweight.” In the physical realm, some kites are so lightweight they can fly indoors, for instance. But what does “ultralight” mean for technology and the internet? At first, ideas around lightness or heaviness might not intuitively make sense because ethereal technology metaphors like “the cloud” often hide or downplay physical infrastructure. But in reality, the internet is a physical thing, connected by underwater submarine cables and served from data centers containing many literal computers worldwide. All computing is physical computing. Websites, which make up some of the internet, can also be lightweight. From a pragmatic standpoint, light websites have a usefulness — they are quick to load, often accessible by default, and use less energy and resources which can have an impact on the environment. Some are even solar-powered, normalizing the idea that websites can be site-specific and linked to physical resources. Broadly speaking, lightness is about seeing the world in a new way. As suggested by Italo Calvino in his book Six Memos for the Next Millennium (1988), "I must change my approach, look at the world from a different perspective, with a different logic and with fresh methods of cognition and verification."
