Cyberdecks are having a moment, rejecting big tech surveillance with style and substance
Cyberdecks are having a moment, rejecting big tech surveillance with style and substance
Cyberdeck 正当红：以风格与实质对抗科技巨头的监控
When I reach out to the self-proclaimed “open source baddie” CC for an interview, I’m pretty sure she’s emailing me back from a pink mermaid purse. “I’m just having so much fun,” she tells me about her seashell cyberdeck. “It’s a Tamagotchi. It’s also an e-reader. It’s networked to my vault and my servers, so it has access to all of my server data, which has all my PDFs, and books, and notes, and everything… It’s also connected to my local AI setup at home.”
当我联系自称为“开源辣妹”（open source baddie）的 CC 进行采访时，我敢肯定她正用一个粉色的美人鱼手包给我回邮件。谈到她的贝壳造型 Cyberdeck 时，她告诉我：“我玩得太开心了。它既是电子宠物，也是电子阅读器。它联网连接到我的保险库和服务器，所以我可以访问所有的服务器数据，包括我所有的 PDF、书籍、笔记等等……它还连接着我家里搭建的本地 AI 系统。”
CC has no background in software engineering or computer science, but she’s gotten good enough at building unconventional cyberdecks — small DIY computers — that she documents the process on her blog Bimbo Tech so that other women can follow her lead, even if they don’t yet know what RAM is.
CC 没有软件工程或计算机科学背景，但她已经非常擅长制作非传统的 Cyberdeck（小型 DIY 电脑），并将其制作过程记录在她的博客 Bimbo Tech 上，以便其他女性可以效仿，即使她们还不知道什么是内存（RAM）。
The idea of the cyberdeck originated in William Gibson’s 1984 sci-fi novel “Neuromancer,” and when credit card-sized computers like the Raspberry Pi came on the market in the 2010s, hardware enthusiasts began building and sharing their own cyberdecks in niche online communities. But over the last few months, these communities have exploded in popularity thanks to women on social media who are teaching each other to build artistic, hyper-feminine computers by documenting their building processes.
Cyberdeck 的概念起源于威廉·吉布森 1984 年的科幻小说《神经漫游者》。当树莓派（Raspberry Pi）这类信用卡大小的电脑在 2010 年代进入市场后，硬件爱好者们开始在小众在线社区中制作并分享自己的 Cyberdeck。但在过去几个月里，这些社区的人气激增，这要归功于社交媒体上的女性们——她们通过记录制作过程，互相传授如何打造充满艺术感、极具女性色彩的电脑。
“I have a running joke that there’s this underlying misogyny in tech — because whenever they release a pro model, or an elite model… I’m always like, let me guess, it’s black or silver,” CC said. “It’s never going to come in pink.”
“我常开玩笑说，科技界存在一种潜在的厌女症——因为每当他们发布专业版或精英版机型时……我总是想，让我猜猜，肯定是黑色或银色的，”CC 说，“它永远不会出粉色的。”
The process of customizing and designing a cyberdeck has become an art form in itself. On Instagram and TikTok, you can find a cyberdeck made of wood and moss that runs Game Boy Color games; a desert-inspired MP3 player built inside a 3D-printed fossil; a Barbie dollhouse that opens up to reveal a functional mini-computer; or a duck figurine that can be used to record voice notes.
定制和设计 Cyberdeck 的过程本身已经成为一种艺术形式。在 Instagram 和 TikTok 上，你可以找到用木头和苔藓制成、能运行 Game Boy Color 游戏的 Cyberdeck；有内置在 3D 打印化石里的沙漠风格 MP3 播放器；有打开后是功能性微型电脑的芭比娃娃屋；还有可以用来录制语音笔记的小鸭子模型。
“I don’t want Meta AI glasses. I want to pirate books in a tiny embellished shell,” said the creator Sarahbelle Kim on TikTok. “No one can surveil you there. You can get some basic parts at the thrift store or eBay and just customize it.”
“我不想要 Meta 的 AI 眼镜。我只想在一个装饰精美的小贝壳里看盗版书，”创作者 Sarahbelle Kim 在 TikTok 上说，“在那里没人能监控你。你可以在二手店或 eBay 上买些基础零件，然后随心所欲地定制它。”
There’s obviously an aesthetic motivation to the rise of girly cyberdecks — why not use a Hello Kitty purse to check your email? It’s fun for the sake of fun. But the women building these over-the-top, bedazzled cyberdecks aren’t in it for the glitter alone. This trend is reaching its peak at a time when people feel powerless against the omnipresent homogeneity of big tech.
“少女风” Cyberdeck 的兴起显然有审美上的动机——为什么不用 Hello Kitty 的包包来查邮件呢？为了好玩而玩本身就很有趣。但这些制作夸张、镶满水钻的 Cyberdeck 的女性们，并不只是为了闪亮的外表。这一趋势之所以达到顶峰，是因为人们在面对科技巨头无处不在的同质化产品时，感到无能为力。
“I think that’s such a refreshing thing for people who were sold these devices that are like Apple’s… If you try to jailbreak it, if you try to do anything to this phone that you paid $1,000 for, that you own, it’s out of warranty,” CC said. “So I just love seeing people taking the power back into their hands, taking the control back into their hands, which obviously always means creativity when people are given the means to go outside of the black box.”
“我认为这对那些被兜售类似苹果设备的人来说，是一件非常令人耳目一新的事情……如果你试图越狱，或者试图对这台你花了 1000 美元购买、理应属于你的手机做任何改动，它就会失去保修，”CC 说，“所以我很高兴看到人们把权力夺回自己手中，把控制权夺回自己手中。当人们拥有了跳出‘黑箱’的手段时，这显然总是意味着创造力。”
Maro Vardanyan doesn’t work with hardware as a blockchain developer, but she’s always enjoyed collecting and tinkering with old computer parts. “A few months ago, I just started as a hobby making art and jewelry pieces and purses with recycled or upcycled old computers I had,” she said. “When I saw everyone doing cyberdecks, I was like, wait, why am I just doing recycled and upcycled ones when I can actually preserve the pieces on something that’s wearable, that’s movable?”
Maro Vardanyan 虽然是一名区块链开发者，平时不从事硬件工作，但她一直喜欢收集和摆弄旧电脑零件。“几个月前，我开始把这当作一种爱好，用我手头的旧电脑进行回收或升级改造，制作艺术品、首饰和手包，”她说，“当我看到大家都在做 Cyberdeck 时，我就想，等等，既然我可以把这些零件保存在可穿戴、可移动的东西上，为什么我只做回收和升级改造呢？”
Vardanyan has taken a different approach to building cyberdecks, opting instead to emphasize the historic relationship between fiber art and technology. Vardanyan refers to her work as “crocheting with computers” or “macrame motherboards,” deliberately nodding to the role of weaving — a practice often viewed as domestic, women’s labor — in the history of early computing.
Vardanyan 在制作 Cyberdeck 时采取了不同的方法，她选择强调纤维艺术与技术之间的历史联系。Vardanyan 将她的作品称为“电脑钩针编织”或“花边主板”，这特意致敬了编织在早期计算机历史中的作用——这种做法通常被视为家庭内部的女性劳动。
Before silicon processors, some early computers ran on magnetic-core memory, made up of copper wiring that was precisely threaded to encode the 1s and 0s of binary code. In order for NASA to build the Apollo Guidance Computer, for example, expert women textile workers were tasked with meticulously weaving wires in painstakingly complex patterns, which powered the spacecraft that landed the first man on the moon.
在硅处理器出现之前，一些早期计算机运行在磁芯存储器上，由铜线精确穿制而成，用于编码二进制的 1 和 0。例如，为了制造阿波罗制导计算机，NASA 聘请了专业的女性纺织工人，负责将电线以极其复杂的图案精心编织起来，正是这些编织物为人类首次登月的航天器提供了动力。
“The original processor was handwoven by seamstresses, not by engineers or anybody else,” she said. “I feel like the hand weaving, and even the fashion-meets-technology… It’s so full circle.”
“最初的处理器是由女裁缝手工编织的，而不是工程师或其他任何人，”她说，“我觉得这种手工编织，甚至是时尚与技术的结合……这真是一个完美的轮回。”
Vardanyan started weaving pink Raspberry Pis to make purses and corsets, then posted photos of her works-in-progress on X. “Of course, when the macrame went viral, all of the men are like, ‘This is such a waste of the Raspberry Pi,’ … or, ‘what about the rain?’” she said. “And then I have to be like, ‘Actually, it’s preserved in an acrylic shell.’ And then they’re like, ‘This is so performative, and the GPIO is gonna lose energy!’ And I’m like, ‘Actually, I’m using a conductive thread, so it actually will move and be fully functioning.’”
Vardanyan 开始编织粉色的树莓派来制作手包和紧身胸衣，并将制作过程的照片发布在 X 上。“当然，当这些花边作品走红时，所有的男性都在说：‘这简直是在浪费树莓派’……或者‘下雨怎么办？’”她说，“然后我不得不解释：‘其实，它被保存在亚克力外壳里。’接着他们又说：‘这太做作了，GPIO 会损耗能量的！’而我回答：‘其实，我用的是导电线，所以它完全可以移动并正常工作。’”