The hottest anti-AI gadget is a cyberdeck

In the years following the book’s publication, a hobbyist community of hobbyists have taken to using their own cables and screens to create homebrew devices, often for hacking purposes or for coding on the go. In the past, decks resembled a sturdy laptop with a screen and small keyboard, were often slim and practical, and were housed in a Pelican briefcase to survive imaginary, apocalyptic scenarios. A niche amateur radio YouTuber titled his tutorial video over a year ago “DIY Doomsday Cyberdeck EMAIL/TEXT without INTERNET” and of course added the hashtag “Prepper.”

What sets Tan’s Cyberdeck apart is its aesthetics. As far as hardware goes, her refurbished clamshell handbag contains a Raspberry Pi single-board computer with a small keyboard and screen. All pretty standard stuff – the feminine shell and sophisticated details of the Cyberdeck subvert expectations. “I’ve never seen anyone do a hyper-femme look,” she says. Tan felt an appreciation for the tactical aesthetic…