Summer of Protocols
A channel for the Summer of Protocols, see summerofprotocols.com
@jenna
For @roadu @daikie and others interested in a deep dive on memory
Memory Research Group led by @keikreutler meets twice a month, part of the Protocol Institute, the new morph of the EF’s 2023-25 Summer of Protocols ☀️ led by @tim and @vgr
(I did editing and production work for SOP and now same for PI)
Meeting today at noon eastern us time, all welcome to join:
https://discord.gg/AUn4Nndwn?event=1392888176875405344
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…reading is from Bernard Stiegler's Technics and Time, which traces technics as a third kind of memory not reducible to the mechanical, biological, or anthropological -- from the chapter "Who? What? The Invention of the Human" ... This builds directly on the work of André Leroi-Gourhan, which we read in our last two sessions.
The text is dense (yet rewarding!). We'll try to read at least half of this excerpt together during the session.
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@vgr
Starting in 12 minutes — SIGFPT (Spevial Interest Group in Formal Protocol Theory) session on vibecoding protocols on our discord.
https://discord.com/events/1082444651946049567/1392887922960765060/1479539058278400000
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@jenna
really good book review
also @vt coded bc "wine scores" the lead example
https://giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/actions/redeem/149a9ea8-b85f-4fc2-899c-ff3ae03df22a
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@jenna
new Kafka Protocol case study
“Kuhdorf”
https://www.theocharis.dev/blog/kidnapped-by-deutsche-bahn/
(cattle transport on German trains has all kinds of bad echoes)
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@stc
Notes on Early Memory Techniques, Distributed Cognition & Digital Memory Architectures
An overview of the past six months of reading led by @keikreutler from Protocolized's Memory Research Group
https://protocolized.summerofprotocols.com/p/memory-research-group-six-months
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@vgr
In SoP we’ve used Tension = tradeoff + conflict” to scaffold the definition of a protocol as an “engineered argument” into a general purpose tool/mental model.
Here is one fundamental tension I just clarified for myself: Rhetorical confidence vs epistemic doubt.
You need a certain level of rhetorical confidence to lead groups. You need a certain level of epistemic doubt to seek truth. The two are often in tension. Usually the leader lets one drive the other. Ie either lies about confidence in truths or fails to project enough confidence to engender trust and loyalty in followers.
If there is a convention of protocol literacy you can perhaps separate the two. The rationalist crowd tried with its “epistemic status: xxx” protocol for writing but that turned into a vacuous virtue signal.
My resolution: A single leader cannot resolve this tension. But a leader with a group of truly empowered followers, or better still, a group of peer leaders, who can express genuine dissent can do so. Then you can proceed with sufficient confidence to lead but also sufficient doubt to discover. The only systematic model for this I know of is Amazon’s “disagree but commit.” A leader simultaneously underwrites the confidence of another leader while bracketing the commitment with systematic doubt resolves the tension. The risk of being wrong gets distributed and socialized among all who disagree-and-commit, but leader gets to project sufficient confidence to work the case that they’re right. It’s an informal version of a courtroom argument actually. One of the two lawyers is going to be wrong, but the judge and jury proceduralize matters in a way that both can argue with sufficient rhetorical confidence without being in bad faith.
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@vgr
Super comic https://edition.cnn.com/2025/11/21/style/superman-attic-most-expensive-comic-scli-intl
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@vgr
Teaser/cheat-code: For those of you attending the Bridge Atlas event at Devconnect on Saturday, this fascinating building will feature in a question I'll ask in my opening talk. I just visited it 😎
Register here: https://devconnect.org/calendar?event=bridge-atlas
https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palacio_de_Aguas_Corrientes
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@vgr
Some found protocol art. There are some terrible quality bean bag chairs in the community hub spaces at Devconnect, and half of them have leaked these little styrofoam balls all over the the floor. It's outdoor and so the breeze blows them along. They're just the right size to flow along the grooves, and just light enough to be blown about by the wind, but not so light they get lofted. So you get a mix of smooth and striated movement.
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@vgr
SoP gang is hanging out in orange discussion hub for the next hour. Come chat with us and get yourself a Protocol Watcher button.
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