Guest Talk with Chen Qiufan | Science Fiction as Protocol

Chen Qiufan, a science fiction author, discusses protocols through the lens of speculative fiction in a guest talk for the Summer of Protocols program. Hazel from the Global Chinese Community introduces Chen's work and explains how protocols represent invisible systems that deserve visibility and support, using science fiction as a mechanism to explore and make visible these foundational infrastructures.

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Talk

Guest Talk with Matt Webb | Fiction, Desire, and Belief

Matt Webb discusses fiction, desire, and belief in relation to protocols, exploring how narrative and imaginative frameworks shape our understanding of technical systems. Webb, a writer and consultant known for his work at BERG and his long-running blog, presents ideas on protocol fiction as a literary and conceptual practice for exploring how protocols function in society.

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May 2023

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Talk

Seeing SCP as a Narrative Protocol

Simon Dea Rir discusses the SCP (Secure Contain Protect) collaborative fiction project, analyzing it as a narrative protocol that combines creative storytelling with structured governance frameworks. He explores parallels between SCP's collaborative mechanisms and protocols from crypto and web technologies, examining how protocol-like elements enable large-scale distributed fiction writing.

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Nov 2023

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Paper

A Phenomenology of Protocols

Tay develops a phenomenological approach to understanding protocols as human-built systems, arguing that current protocols fail to nurture human flourishing because they were designed without centering human capacity for self-making, character cultivation, and wisdom. She contends that truly human-centered protocols must be reconstructed to be hospitable to human development rather than extractive of human attention and agency.

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Dec 2023

Janna Tay