The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated ongoing displacements of social, professional, and physical life wrought by media infrastructures, devices, and interfaces. Those who engage in planet-scale science and knowledge practices had to spend—as did we all—a lot of time indoors, and a lot of time at home. For over two years, conferences were held remotely, researchers could not access their field sites, and informal discussions over beer or coffee could not take place. The encounters and enabling beverages that build and maintain the collaborative trust, motivating curiosity, and professional friendship that sustains global knowledge networks were rendered impossible. What happens to our visions of the planetary when everyone has to stay at home, in their little boxes, speaking to other people in little boxes?