technology | Platypus

The Kids Are AI-right

 Manar Naser  August 26, 2026

In January of 2026, I found myself as an instructional assistant in a fifth-grade English Language Arts class, where I would work with small groups to improve students’ writing. I developed a system where I would reward my students with one piece of candy in exchange for one essay. The system worked out great, but it soon reached a point where students would ask me for candy in the halls without an essay. One day, Kay , a strong yet uninterested writer, asked me for a Jolly Rancher. I asked if she had an essay for me. Kay giggled and asked, “Can I use ChatGPT to write it?” Her tone conveyed sarcasm, implying that if she used ChatGPT to write the essay, she would not have to do the work to get the reward. By telling this joke, she already knew what my answer would be. I was taken aback. How does a fifth grader already know about ChatGPT and its social problems? It seems obvious now, but at the time, I just said “no, you are not allowed to use AI to write your essays.” Kay giggled and skipped away, confirming that she knew using ChatGPT was never an option in the first place. (read more...)

Fragile Followings: Leaving and Returning to the Ecological Field

 Mayline Strouk  August 5, 2026

Ce contenu est également disponible en français.

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Elliðaey Island, in the Vestmannaeyjar archipelago off the coast of Iceland, hosts one of the world’s largest populations of Leach’s storm-petrels (Hydrobates leucorhous), a small seabird species. Nearly 90% of the individuals breeding in Iceland nest there, yet knowledge about this species, listed as globally vulnerable on The International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List since 2016, remains largely limited (Hurling, 2021). (read more...)

Cartographing the Brazilian Manosphere: Toponymic Aliases in a Public Forum

 Leonardo Thibau  June 10, 2026

Este conteúdo também está disponível em português.

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Canal do Búfalo was a prominent Brazilian online community in the 2010s, composed almost entirely of men. In this forum, members symbolically identify themselves as “buffaloes,” drawing inspiration from a story popularized by figures such as the American motivational speaker and entrepreneur Rory Vaden (2020). This metaphor concerns how buffaloes and cows respond to storms. While cows tend to move away from the storm, prolonging their suffering, buffaloes move toward it, crossing through more quickly. In the context of this community, this image embodies an attitude toward adversity: confronting problems head-on, with resistance, courage, and a willingness to endure difficult situations rather than avoid them. (read more...)

A Feeling for Information: Technological Potentiality and Embodied Futures in Post-Socialist China

 Yue Zhao  September 23, 2025

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One sunny afternoon in March 2024, I walked into a flea market in Chengdu, China — a labyrinth of book stalls, shadowed corridors, and a handful of solitary customers. The vendors were largely absent, or perhaps stationed on stools in darkened corners, their faces illuminated by the glow of mobile screens. Each stall overflowed with dust: old magazines, documents, books, and well-worn notebooks that formed towers of forgotten knowledge. I pulled one volume after another from these stacks, hoping to find archival materials about a forgotten episode in the history of information technology in China. For a moment, I found myself yearning for some extraordinary sensory gift that would allow me to scan and locate relevant archival materials in this sea of information with greater precision and speed. (read more...)

Hawa-laat: Polluted Air in Delhi, India

 Vasundhara Bhojvaid  August 7, 2025

 यह पोस्ट हिंदी में भी उपलब्ध है ।

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In 2015, I was back in India’s capital city, Delhi after two years of fieldwork in villages in rural parts of the country. On my return, the city had changed. There was something different in the atmosphere, which was leading to far-reaching, unexpected effects. For instance, during my morning commutes as I turned on the radio to one of Delhi’s most popular radio stations the radio jockey blared every hour or so, ‘Hawa-laat’! The Hindi word Hawalaat translates as a prison. If the word is broken into two parts, Hawa and Laat, it signifies a kick by the wind, as Hawa means wind or air and Laat means a kick. The radio jockey called out the word in a long and stretched manner to get the listener’s attention, slowly elongating the word ‘Hawaaaaaaaaa’ and then abruptly ending with a forceful ‘Laat!!!’, bringing out the potency of the wind (air) kick we were all getting. Following this, air pollution levels were detailed, and listeners encouraged to indulge in carpools and get their vehicular pollution levels checked. (read more...)

To Witness: Cell Phone Cameras, Immigrant Communities, and Police Accountability

 Jessica L. Olivares  July 2, 2024

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“There is nothing like an iPhone …to show people the problem…” -Alex Vitale, The End of Policing As I contemplate the momentum of the 2024 presidential election cycle, my focus turns to the potential consequences of a renewed Trump presidency. Drawing on my expertise as an ethnographer, I recall the socio-technological impacts of his initial presidency, which fueled activism and organizing for civil liberties. What follows is a reflection on my fieldwork in Houston, Texas during 2018 and 2019, focusing on how anti-surveillance advocates at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Texas used cell phones and their cameras as resistance tools. The ACLU has been an active proponent for those in need of protection from government surveillance by educating people in the US on their constitutional rights, advocating for the protection of civil liberties, and taking legal action to stop violations of those rights and liberties. During my eighteen months of research, I engaged with anti-surveillance advocates at the national, state, and city levels who prepared organizing efforts and legal cases limiting unlawful surveillance capabilities. For this piece, I focus on promoting cell phone camera usage in ACLU’s “Know Your Rights” workshops and through the ACLU Blue and ACLU La Migra mobile applications. Throughout the piece, I reckon with what Deborah Thomas calls “the often difficult-to-parse relationships between surveillance and witnessing” (2000, 717). Witnessing the precarity of past ethnographic junctures can highlight injustices, bring them to attention, and formulate strategies for their alleviation. Thus, bearing witness to the past moments may help gain agency over unpredictable futures. (read more...)

Lonely Planet Looking for Connection: Citizen Science SETI Research at NASA

 sebastian levar spivey  February 20, 2024

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NASA’s homepage is as glitzy as you would expect of the U.S. Government’s sexiest administration. Glossy pictures of nebulas, astronauts, and asteroids float across the top of the page and even the ozone hole over Antarctica manages to look like a snack. A quick swipe over to the Citizen Science Page, however, and now the images give enthusiastic, low-res, DIY vibes coupled with pun-filled project titles like “Aurorasaurous” and “Spiritacular.” Each one beckons: anyone with a cellphone or a laptop can do this project. A Jacob’s Ladder of binary stretching into the blurry heavens stops my scroll with its provoking title—Are we alone in the universe? Well golly, I don’t know. Go to Project Website. So I do. (read more...)