Protocols/Protocol Fiction (Classic)

28 Sep 2025 - 28 Sep 2025
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    • The Harlan Ellison story Repent Harlequin said the Ticktockman
    • That scene in The Sopranos where they try to shake down a Starbucks
    • Most of Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm
    • The Wire (and really all police procedurals)
    • Bruce Sterling’s 1998 novel Distraction has a number of different aspects involving protocols:
      • the opening scene is a flash mob swarming attack on a bank
      • the main character is a political operative who is trying to resucitate failing social institutions by protocol-hacking them
      • one of his clients is an architect/designer who developed a distributed, protocolized construction technology which figures in the plot
    • The Bruce Sterling story Maneki Neko has a network-mediated gift economy that exists as a kind of subversive subculture within capitalism. This story also involves a conflict between protocol systems. I officially declare this the most protocol story ever.