Toward Enlightened Protocolism

Module 5 is live online, featuring essays like Good Death and Retrofitting the Web.

SoP is hosting a weeklong virtual symposium at the end of the month, culminating in a full day of workshops and talks. Anyone can host or attend an event. There will be attendees from all over the world, from a plethora of backgrounds. To help facilitate this, we’d like to ask a few things (answer as many or as few as you like):

• Is there a topic you could host an event on? If so, what would you title the session?

• What do you want to learn about? What event format do you prefer?

• What lingering questions about protocols do you have?

Please comment with your input on this forum post. Thanks!

The PILL program, part of SoP24, was a small grants program designed to explore the emerging lore and literacy around protocols through art, fiction, and other small creative explorations.

Fellows of the PILL program submitted final versions of their various media files this week. Their projects are now on display in our online Protocol Exhibition:

One of SoP's core missions is to build a common language, cultivate literacy, and share stories to support people working in the field of protocol science. Thank you to Guo Liu, Hua Xi Zi, Stephen Bailey, Xiaoting Tan, Chenoe Hart, Lizz Thabet, Will Abramson, Wendi Yan, Haotian Fang, Yuemin Huang, Willie Fineberg, Ben Zucker, Kay Yu, Sachin Benny, and Randy Lubin for your creativity and hard work!

"Technology without technocracy" coined by Sam Chua, continues to be a concise raison d'être for protocol science. It's a short answer to the long question: Why are strong theoretical foundations, backing for protocol entrepreneurs, and improved literacy important?

Today's sociotechnical landscape is a difficult one to navigate. Between emerging tech, like AI and crypto, and social change, driven by things like global warming and pandemics, there is is a lot to deal with. Technology and organizational tools, such as standards, will be used to solve these issues, but the future is not necessarily sunny:

Better protocol science could steer us away from some dark alternatives and toward a future where high tech and rule of the people coexist. This map is from last week's SoP24 Cohort Finale – over the course of September, we'll dive deeper into the current landscape and emerging themes, including promising avenues of research and experimentation.