a key lesson here is that even though the digital age is supposedly turning on a dime, the dead ends take decades to reverse... if at all.

so what dead ends are we walking in as we speak that will only reveal themselves once we are terminally trapped?

Well, he should have thought about that way earlier...

But consider what could happen in a year or two when search engines get smarter. I click the Search button on my keyboard, or tell a search engine, 'I want to buy a pair of shoes.' It supposedly heads out on to the Web to find shoe stores, but in fact brings me only to those shoe stores that have deals with that search engine or hardware company. The same with booksellers. Insurers. News. And so on.

Berners-Lee essentially stood by and watched, if not abetted, the hostile corporate takeover of the protocol and Commission that he conceived. In recent years he's become concerned about the effect of that on his legacy. Should have thought about that much earlier, Tim.