One Tension to Rule Them All

ArticleTimber Stinson-SchroffFebruary 14, 2025

This issue introduces the concept of tensions as a framework for understanding complex systems that goes beyond traditional trade-off thinking, developed through the Tensions Game workshops run across multiple iterations with diverse professionals. The author argues that tensions enable problem management in infinite-game scenarios and represent a budding principle of protocol science with applications for protocol designers, entrepreneurs, and engineers.

Topics

article editorial protocols

Related resources

Article

Theorizing Protocolization I New

This essay introduces protocolization as a planetary phenomenon where progress occurs through invisibility and the expansion of computational systems, establishing qualitative frameworks before Part II develops formal theoretical apparatus. The authors present this work from the Special Interest Group in Formal Protocol Theory (SIGFPT) as an invitation to collectively theorize how protocols structure contemporary life at planetary scale.

Venkatesh Rao, Patrick Nast

Article

Generative Ai in Cultural Projects

Generative AI's accessibility has disrupted cultural and creative industries whose primary product is meaning, creating urgent tensions between technology adoption and creative labor that demand protocol-based solutions. Nicolás Madoery maps these sociotechnical tensions and proposes moving forward through a protocol lens, while announcing a Buenos Aires meetup and new essay bounties.

Nicolás Madoery

Article

The View From the Bridge

Issue #64 introduces Bridge Atlas as Protocolized's overarching Fall theme, exploring how narrow geographic and conceptual bridges—using the Khyber Pass as a concrete example—concentrate and shape planetary history and flows of power, trade, and ideas. The issue announces a third protocol fiction contest on bridge building and burning, a special salon series, and a workshop at Devconnect Buenos Aires.

Venkatesh Rao