Rhizomatica, a nonprofit founded by Peter Bloom, has developed HERMES, an open-source digital shortwave radio system that enables remote and indigenous communities to send files, data, and encrypted messages over long distances using minimal infrastructure. The system has proven valuable in emergency situations, such as coordinating rescues for fishing vessels in the Bay of Bengal, and enables transmission of critical information like GPS coordinates, medical data, and evidence documentation that would be impractical to communicate via voice alone.
AI models now provide personalized explanations and tutoring that were historically only available within university walls, undermining the institution's 900-year monopoly on knowledge dissemination. This shift challenges the underlying value proposition of higher education, which has long bundled content delivery, credentialing, and socialization into a single offering organized around scarce, gatekept knowledge.