[politician]

The domain name system is a hierarchical database of records that computers use to associate names ("news.ycombinator.com") with an IP address where the corresponding server is listening for connections. It's like how the post office knows how to get to your house to deliver a letter given only your address. It's a map of addresses.

Computers query this system all of the time to figure out where they're going. It's helpful for people to be able to query this system too, if only to help themselves understand where the computers are going to go. People create these records, after all, not the computers that use them.