In this editorial issue, Protocolized introduces Tongzhou Yu's protocol fiction story about a couple whose relationship is mediated by communication protocols, exploring what domesticity feels like when conflict resolution systems optimize away human friction. The opening depicts a mundane argument over soy sauce that escalates into questions about whether perfectly coordinated communication actually enhances or diminishes intimate partnership.
Protocolized launches Monstrous Times, a new publication dedicated to strange rules fiction, expanding on over two years of protocol fiction storytelling including 60+ stories and writing contests. The launch reflects the discovery and formalization of a new literary genre that explores how rules and protocols structure narratives and worlds.
Sachin Benny
The Protocol Fiction Special Interest Group convened to explore how protocol fiction functions as a tool for observing how rules, standards, and institutions shape experience and constrain narrative possibilities. Rather than focusing on individual characters, the group examined stories that distribute agency across environments, procedures, and interfaces to make visible the background logic of systems.
Sachin Benny
The Protocol Fiction Special Interest Group explores what protocol fiction is as a genre, moving beyond the tautological definition of science fiction focused on protocols to foundational concepts like Chiang's Law, which positions protocol fiction in the science fiction camp where 'strange rules' (protocols) serve as world-shaping technologies. The group examines genre from multiple angles including reader-writer contracts, discourse modes, and commercial publishing categories.
Spencer Nitkey