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Terminological Twists

FictionSummer of Protocols
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What's in a word? Each story in this anthology uncovers a possible world hidden behind everyday jargon — tales of hyperstition where terminology shapes reality.

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protocolsfictionculturetheoryanthology

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Paper

Four Doors: An Architectural Memory Protocol

This paper presents 'Four Doors' as an architectural memory protocol that applies medieval monastic mnemonic techniques to a contemporary retreat space, using the building's physical architecture and inscribed doorways as mnemonic devices organized around the intercolumnia principle. The author draws on Mary Carruthers' scholarship on medieval memory practices to transform the Lodge at St. Edward Park into a 'gathering site' and 'machine for thinking' where each architectural threshold functions as a gateway to associated ideas.

Summer of Protocols

Article

Ghosts in Machines

Protocolized is running a contest calling for protocol-fiction stories imagining futures where distributed AI systems communicate through various protocols—from experimental systems like MCP and A2A to blockchain and speculative new protocols. The contest guidelines emphasize creating narratives set in digitally haunted futures populated by multiple ghostly machine intelligences, drawing inspiration from works like Banks' Culture novels and Liu's 'Good Hunting.

Protocolized

Paper

Flow: A Speculative Brochure

Flow is a speculative design fiction presented as a corporate onboarding brochure for an AI-powered team collaboration platform that promises to synthesize communication, manage information flow, and enable collective intelligence through contextually aware algorithms. Fernández uses the brochure format to critique contemporary workplace technologies and the rhetoric of seamless productivity, examining how such systems claim to reduce noise while potentially increasing surveillance and control.

Rafael Fernández