Kickoff
In this kickoff session for Protocol School 2025, an unnamed orientation leader uses the bristlemouth fish (the most abundant vertebrate on Earth, yet unknown to most people) as a metaphor for how protocols pervade daily life unnoticed, introducing 'protocol watching' and 'protocol built' as practices for cultivating awareness. Tim then argues protocols are 'engineered arguments' that produce Whitehead advances, using an Ethereum flash-loan transaction and the concept of 'hardness' (atoms, institutions, now cryptography/code) to show how Ethereum functions as a 'mesoprotocolized world.' Timber closes by advocating a meso-level focus for protocol intervention, introducing the 'carrier bag theory of management,' tension-based protocol design, and a capability maturity model for AI adoption, alongside housekeeping for the week's certificate program.
Tim, Timber