Articles
Haikus to Fly By
The Past, Present and Future of the Terminal Aerodrome Forecast
Matthew McDowell-SweetMagazine
Essays, fiction, and protocol thinking — published on Substack.
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Obliquities
Methods, Madness, Monsters and Magic in New Nature
Kicking off the Protocol Symposium 2026
Venkatesh Rao
Articles
Securing Stigmergic Systems
An update from our special interest group for Formal Protocol Theory: rogue agents and a PI Symposium Hackathon
Patrick Nast
Articles
The Ductus of Protocol Fiction
An update from our Protocol Fiction SIG takes us under the hood of the emerging genre
Spencer Nitkey
Articles
Trust by Protocol
How Estonia engineered legitimacy for its internet voting platform
Jason Collins
Fictions
The Dismantling
At its conclusion, Elizabeth Maher’s series paralleling American folklore simply disappears without a trace
Thing Party
Fictions
Carousel Feeding in the Asteroid Midden // Livelock
For Egrol, the protagonist of Spencer Nitkey’s Thanatosis, a mind-expanding encounter with workers who have agency
Spencer Nitkey
Obliquities
How the Protocol Institute is Adopting AI
What building a research institute at 100% adoption actually looks like
Timber Stinson-Schroff
Fictions
Jamverse Jam Contest Closes Today
Less than 24 hours left to submit your entries
Venkatesh Rao
Fictions
Floyd Haggerty’s Wild West Extravaganza Spectacular!
Or, “Choreography and the Equine Genius,” by Sundown, Principal Equine
Thing Party
Obliquities
The Crooked Timber of AI
The philosophical perils of conflating discoveries and inventions, and how to overcome them
Venkatesh Rao
Fictions
Thanatosis on the Central Mast // Liveness Check
We enter an intractable new world conjured by Spencer Nitkey and find a protagonist in search of perspective
Spencer Nitkey
Fictions
A Visitor’s Guide to the Disposition
Forty Years of Observation. Forty Years of Being Right. Forty Years of Being Lied About.
Thing Party
Articles
Durable AI Adoption
Introducing the Durable AI Adoption guide, developed in our Special Interest Group for Business
Sachin
Articles
The Character of Public Transit Systems
Kannen leads a tour of the world's public transit systems, revealing what they tell us about the cultures and trust dynamics of the cities they serve
Strata
Fictions
Jamverse Jam
Announcing Protocolized’s fourth contest: we’re looking for artists and writers to extend and connect interoperable worlds
Protocolized
Fictions
The Big Man
Elizabeth Maher's world-building series continues, reimagining American folklore from a protocolized perspective
Thing Party
Obliquities
Challenges: Trivial, Grand, and Whitehead
Introducing the Protocol Institute Challenges program
Venkatesh Rao
Articles
Maintaining Everything That Matters
Matthew McDowell-Sweet and Mike Travers discuss Stewart Brand’s recently-published book ‘Maintenance: Of Everything’
Matthew McDowell-Sweet
Obliquities
2026 Protocol Symposium: New Nature
Call for abstracts open, due June 14, 2026
Venkatesh Rao
Articles
Irrigation by Protocol: When Vineyards Delegate Decisions to Networks
When vineyards can speak through data, the question isn’t whether to listen but whether we still know how to read what the vines themselves are saying
Jason Collins
Fictions
The Overloaded Train
In this, our first crossover between two protocol fiction universes, Sachin Benny's Unified Eurasian Train Line passes through Spencer Nitkey's Zoothesia
Sachin Benny
Fictions
All You Can Do Here Is Leave
The first in a rich new series by Elizabeth Maher seeds an extended universe around T.R.O.(L.L.), Maher’s story awarded in our Building and Burning Bridges protocol fiction contest
Elizabeth Maher
Protocolized
Protocols for the Long Now
The Protocol Institute collaborates with the Long Now Foundation on three participatory cross-disciplinary labs – applications are due June 5!
Denise HearnObliquities
Introducing the Protocol Institute
Building a field and community to steward the planetary-scale process of protocolization
Timber Stinson-Schroff
Fictions
The Headless Empire
A secretive corporation transcends jurisdictional boundaries in part three of Sachin Benny’s new world-building series, set on a single rail line connecting Lisbon to Laos
Sachin Benny
Obliquities
A Primordial Computing Soup
Fostering AI art scenius, creating an open planetary network of robots
Venkatesh Rao
Fictions
The Flesh Perfected Is the Flesh Possessed
The longest single rail line, connecting Lisbon to Laos, is the setting for a bio-thriller in Sachin Benny’s new world-building series
Sachin Benny
Obliquities
The Fabric and the Brain
Articulating agent ecologies with high-personality planetary computation
Venkatesh Rao
Fictions
The Faithful Channel
A translator maintaining a shadow bridge between superpowers discovers something she cannot unsee. Nishit Sanil's story was shortlisted in our Building and Burning Bridges contest.
Nishit
Articles
A Government Guide to Open Protocols
Public sector teams must go beyond the in-house or off-the-shelf dichotomy to take advantage of open protocols, which offer a unique way to manage both software costs and geopolitical exposure
Kelly Roegies
Protocolized
Strangeness, Legibility, Hardness
An update from our Protocol Fiction Special Interest Group
Sachin Benny
Fictions
Last-Mile Optimism
Reducing Waste. Eliminating Fraud. Promoting Civic Responsibility. At least that’s what the city bureaucrats said.
Marie-Hélène Lebeault
Articles
Theorizing Protocolization II: Atomic Protocol Questions
Solving real coordination problems to discover the formal laws of protocols.
Venkatesh Rao
Obliquities
Have Your Factory Call My Factory
In this installment of our Obliquities editorial column, we argue that the social kernels circulating in intelligence media are the equivalent of industrial intermediates flowing between factories.
Venkatesh Rao
Fictions
Caduceus City
The appearance of a thoroughly protocolized environment is, almost, the perfect cover for dark practices.
Randy Lubin
Fictions
American Skyway
The 1st place story in our Building and Burning Bridges contest shows that normal statecraft can only achieve so much when its central arteries become calcified.
Cameron Russell Armstrong
Fictions
The Repossessed
Inside a memory labyrinth, inheritance turns out to be something far more dangerous than money.
Amita
Fictions
Desire Machines
The second place story in our Bridges contest holds a mirror to one of the world's favorite hobbies. A tale of gambling, fandom, and mechanical leviathans, whose bones litter the world...
Sachin Benny
Protocolized
What is Protocol Fiction?
A first report from our protocol fiction writing group, led by regular Protocolized contributors Spencer Nitkey and Sachin Benny. Join tomorrow, Feb 12 and every other Thursday, at 8am Pacific.
Spencer Nitkey
Fictions
T.R.O.(L.L.)
Something metamorphic lurks beneath this dark bridge. Elizabeth Maher’s inventive story placed third in our Building and Burning Bridges protocol fiction contest.
Elizabeth Maher
Obliquities
From Destination AI to Intelligence Media
Introducing Obliquities, our new editorial column. In this first installment we propose a new idea – the social kernel – and begin to examine the logic of intelligence media.
Protocolized
Articles
Casio: Adequate Enough to Rule the World
How a cheap plastic watch became a landmark in the world of sci-fi, geopolitics and terror – and what it might mean for contemporary consumer gadgets.
Timber Stinson-Schroff
Fictions
Minor Differences Repeating Forever
The Zoothesia finale. In a world where recursive self-improvement spills over from social media feeds into meatspace, a fractal pattern reveals itself to Karina.
Spencer Nitkey
Articles
The Color of Safety
From Birren to OSHA, in reality and on-screen, how does pigment play a role in protecting workers from harm and making mistakes?
Venkatesh Rao
Fictions
Missing Not at Random
Chapter 5 of the Zoothesia Series. What happens when you overload a protocol with information? Narratives begin converging in this strange, penultimate chapter.
Spencer Nitkey
Articles
Finding Fault Lines within the Firm
Disruptive AI tools present an opportunity to observe business protocols that usually remain hidden. This article shares what has been revealed so far about tensions between production and authority.
rafa
Articles
Theorizing Protocolization I: New Nature
Progress through Invisibility and the Planetary Computational Tangle
Venkatesh Rao
Fictions
Day Traitor
Chapter 4 of the Zoothesia Series. In this world, anticipating the market is like baring your soul.
Spencer Nitkey
Articles
How to Protocol Watch
Issue #84: A miniature hobby for the New Year, suitable for the aspiring intellectual adventurer and without the extravagant overhead of a seafaring voyage.
Timber Stinson-Schroff
Articles
Memory Research Group: Six Months of Reading Backward Through Time
Issue #83: Sometimes What is Remembered Most is What is Most Dynamically Changing
Kei Kreutler
Fictions
The Predation Circuit
Chapter 3 of the Zoothesia Series. Even digital protocols have sewers filled with ungainly monsters. You might not be able to see them, but...
Spencer Nitkey
Articles
Disentangling the State of Climate Protocols
Issue #78: A big little idea called durability
Cory Levinson
Fictions
Would You Stop Following Me if I Was a Worm?
Chapter 2 of the Zoothesia Series. With appearances perpetually sanitized by overlays, our protagonist must resort to foulmaxing to escape the unwanted attention of a former lover.
Spencer Nitkey
Articles
Coffee, Diplomacy, Contest News
Issue #76: A host of program updates from Summer of Protocols
Timber Stinson-Schroff
Fictions
Perception Must Preserve
Chapter 1 of the Zoothesia Series. In a world where augmented reality overlays are widespread, what happens to beautiful sights?
Spencer Nitkey
Articles
Bridge Atlas Episode 5: Verifiability
Issue #74: A conversation with Shreya Shankar and Justin Drake
Christine D. Kim
Articles
Bridge Atlas Episode 4: Alignment
Issue #72: A conversation with Alex Stokes and Emmett Shear
Emmett Shear
Articles
Protocol Fiction Aesthetics
Issue #71: macro, neumorphic, arcane, cryptic, fractal
James Langdon
Articles
Bridge Atlas Episode 3: Commons
Issue #70: A conversation with Yancey Strickler and Trent Van Epps
Yancey Strickler
Articles
Bridge Atlas Episode 2: Paradigms
Issue #68: A conversation with Nils Gilman and Josh Stark
Protocolized
Articles
Bridge Atlas Episode 1: Entry Points
Issue #67: Recapping the first Bridge Atlas salon
Protocolized
Articles
Generative AI in Cultural Projects Urgently Requires Protocols
Issue #65: Sociotechnical Tensions, Meetup, Bounties
Nicolás Madoery
Articles
Reflections from Memoria
Issue #61: A Memory Research Group catch-up from Memoria
Kei Kreutler
Articles
SIGP4B Update 4: Drift Stacking
Issue #60: Berlin workshop notes & Bridge Atlas preview
Timber Stinson-Schroff
Fictions
Towel Uprising
Issue #55: Meet Towel Integrity Officer Martinez, Badge #0089
Marie-Hélène Lebeault
Fictions
Genius in the Bottle
Issue #54: A field-tested omega metafiction protocol
Claire Pichelin aka Hypathie
Fictions
We Shape Our Tools, and Thereafter Our Tools Shape Us
Issue #52: How does it feel to be in a relationship that runs this smoothly?
Protocolized
Articles
SoP Fall Forecast
Issue #49: a flurry of news, events, and opportunities from around the protocol studies ecosystem
Protocolized
Fictions
Soda Sweet as Blood
Issue #48: If our digital selves come to outlive us, how do they find peace?
Spencer Nitkey
Fictions
In the Garden of Eden, Baby
Issue #47: Life for the last sextillionaires left on Earth can be frightfully irksome
Sisyphus
Fictions
Loyalty
Issue #46: Extreme weather and personified memory technology meet in the first story to be published from Ghosts in Machines!
Zach Hyman
Articles
What is Formal Protocol Theory?
Issue #45: An Introduction to the Ongoing Work of SIGFPT
Venkatesh Rao
Articles
A Very Short Introduction to Memory and Technology
Issue #44: From the Memory Research Group
Kei Kreutler
Articles
3 Protocols for Articulating Civilizational Memory
Issue #43: Town Hall on Metropolises, Nation-States, and Cosmopolises
Protocolized
