Sounds like AOL's vision for the future ~20 years ago. Keyword: ABANDONALLHOPE

It was fun while it lasted, but everything old becomes new again. Business interests and law enforcement are far too entrenched with the current internet for things to ever revert back to the wild west it once was.

Legislators went from thinking the internet was an inconsequential series of tubes to now understanding its implications enough to legislate it, which is indication enough that the party is over. With net neutrality dead, selective law enforcement of content (FO/SESTA) established and ISPs allowed to be choosy with how they participate in a network that depends on global participation to have any utility at all, the walls of this garden are being raised one slab at a time.

Blaming Apple, Microsoft or Google is not the solution. The storm is indeed upon us, but it's not too late to start building an ark.

I'm not blaming the corporations. I'm blaming those who vote with their dollars/<other currency> to further the construction of the walled garden.

Or we'll come up with a workable technical solution (like meshnet, but something that works) to the fundamental problem of centralization of the internet.

I don't think the devices to enable this will be available. Unless people plan on saving the devices that are in use now.

For every couple kids that have iPads and spend their days consuming mindless content through apps, there are kids who build computers from old parts, install linux on those computers, and learn from the infinite amount of documentation on the internet. The future internet might not have the same independent spirit as in the past, but it will exist.

It's 100:1 really.

Who are these many kids that don't know how to use the internet (I'm assuming here you mean the web)?