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The Infinite Game of Poetry: Protocols for Living, Listening, and Transcending the Rules

TalkRobert Peake
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The Infinite Game of Poetry: Protocols for Living, Listening, and Transcending the Rules
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Poet and technologist Robert Peake presents a framework for poetry as a form of protocol and 'protocoling,' arguing that poetry is an infinite, unwinnable game defined by Marvin Bell's dictum: 'learn the rules, break the rules, make up new rules, and break the new rules.' Drawing on Gödel's incompleteness theorem, Bertolt Brecht, and examples like William McGonagall's disastrous verse versus ChatGPT-generated poetry, Peake distinguishes first-order protocols (grammar, form) from second-order 'protocoling' (the recursive, self-breaking evolution of rules), framing poetry as a compression algorithm that uses words to transcend words.

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fictionfirst-order-vs-second-order-protocols-protocolingmarvin-bells-rule-breaking-algorithm-of-craftpoetry-as-compression-algorithm-and-infinite-gamepoetryingpoemingpoeting-as-recursive-protocolprotocolstechnologytension-and-quarrel-as-generative-poetic-mechanismtown-hall

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