I’d have to put on my futurist hat to start thinking of the solutions (hi John, craig here!) - but what is to stop a future company from developing AI that, for example, can truly separate stuff on the internet based on your desires?
What do I mean by desires?
Well, the “Reality TV” aspect of the Internet DOES appeal to many, so they may set this new app (in a mobile OS or a Browser) to reflect that. Even then, it would weed out (rank lower) sites that didn’t prove themselves worthy. In other words, things that didn’t fit the mold would be as hard to find as they were in the early days of the internet instead of taking up all the headspace.
Then we have a “normal straight family” who may want their AI settings to be - for lack of a easier way to explain - more of the Chinese model (sans the rewriting of history, etc.). They want the good stuff of the internet without hearing the worthless opinions of every troll, the millions of fake “drop ship” web sites that sell Amazon products and so much else. They don’t care about “Freedom of Speech” - they want a tool to enhance knowledge and life.
In some ways the mess is sorting itself out. All the screamers are starting to make less in Ad money…which makes them go away if their enterprise is based on mostly the $$$/
As the “Volunteer Economy” both online and off proves, people like to help other people…sometimes for free, sometimes for just expenses and sometimes for many even a small stipend or salary.
The problem with larger internet models is that once the 10’s of million of initial VC money is taken, the die is cast.
No doubt we are at a low point in the evolution of this thing…the question becomes whether we will say the same in 5 or 10 years. Maybe, as we speak, some young guns are writing these AI apps which will filter out noise.