Protocols of Storytelling - Qiufan Stanley Chen
Stanley Qiufan Chen, author of Waste Tide and co-author with Kai-Fu Lee of AI 2041, teaches a workshop on 'protocols of storytelling,' arguing that meaning in fiction emerges from a shared protocol-space between author and reader—genre conventions, causal layer analysis (Sohail Inayatullah's four layers: litany, systemic causes, worldview, myth/metaphor), and a 'constraint-driven focus' that keeps every narrative choice traceable back to a story's core idea. He guides participants through an iterative 'seed-root-flower-fruit' exercise, using works like The Matrix, Evangelion, and Arrival to show how deep protocols (myth, worldview) are harder to change than surface elements (plot, imagery), and how human-first, AI-assisted co-writing can deepen rather than flatten speculative fiction.
Qiufan Stanley Chen
