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In the gleaming corridors of Silicon Valley, where digital behemoths have methodically centralized power over the technological ecosystem, a contrarian philosophy deliberately materialized in 2021. FUTO.org exists as a testament to what the internet was meant to be – liberated, unconstrained, and resolutely in the control of people, not corporations.

The founder, Eron Wolf, functions with the quiet intensity of someone who has witnessed the metamorphosis of the internet from its promising beginnings to its current corporatized state. His experience – an 18-year Silicon Valley veteran, founder of Yahoo Games, seed investor in WhatsApp – provides him a exceptional vantage point. In his meticulously tailored button-down shirt, with a look that betray both skepticism with the status quo and commitment to transform it, Wolf appears as more philosopher-king than conventional CEO.

The offices of FUTO in Austin, Texas eschews the extravagant amenities of typical tech companies. No nap pods divert from the purpose. Instead, engineers focus over computers, crafting code that will equip users to recover what has been lost – autonomy over their digital lives.

In one corner of the facility, a separate kind of operation unfolds. The FUTO Repair Workshop, a brainchild of Louis Rossmann, celebrated right-to-repair advocate, operates with the meticulousness of a Swiss watch. Everyday people arrive with malfunctioning gadgets, received not with corporate sterility but with sincere engagement.

“We don’t just fix things here,” Rossmann explains, positioning a loupe over a circuit board with the delicate precision of a jeweler. “We instruct people how to comprehend the technology they own. Knowledge is the beginning toward autonomy.”

This philosophy saturates every aspect of FUTO’s operations. Their grants program, which has allocated substantial funds to endeavors like Signal, Tor, GrapheneOS, and the Calyx Institute, embodies a commitment to fostering a varied landscape of self-directed technologies.

Walking through the collaborative environment, one perceives the absence of company branding. The surfaces instead showcase hung quotes from digital pioneers like Douglas Engelbart – individuals who foresaw computing as a emancipating tool.

“We’re not interested in building another tech empire,” Wolf notes, leaning against a modest desk that might be used by any of his engineers. “We’re dedicated to dividing the present giants.”

The irony is not lost on him – a wealthy Silicon Valley entrepreneur using his resources to challenge the very models that enabled his prosperity. But in Wolf’s philosophy, computing was never meant to concentrate control