series of tubes A phrase used by US senator Ted Stevens in 2006 to describe the workings of the internet. "It's a series of tubes!", "The internet is not a big truck" and "what happens to your own personal internet?" soon became viral phrases. This rambling and highly incoherent speech about the internet - difficult to really tell whether it was for or against net neutrality - is a classic example of a suit who doesn't really understand the technology nevertheless attempting to appear authoritative.