“When you get the dragon out of his cave on to the plain and in the daylight, you can count his teeth and claws, and see just what is his strength. But to get him out is only the first step. The next is either to kill him, or to tame him and make him a useful animal.”
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. The Path of the Law, Harvard Law Review, 1897.
Can you be governed by protocols and not even know it? What if the protocol you are acting under is a ‘bad’ one? How would you recognize that and escape the protocol? How do you kill off a bad protocol that is unconsciously and reflexively passed from one generation of people to the next?
Yes, this sounds an awful lot like the plot of The Matrix, but these are the types of questions I’ve been pondering over the past year during a leave of absence from my job as a law professor. Not while literally watching The Matrix (although now I think I probably should), but while trying to discern the systems of rules I’ve been living by for 47 years. It’s been grueling to figure this out, as I’ve been considering the impact of protocols like religion, education, family tradition, gender expectations, parenting techniques, academia, law, and so many more on the choices I make every day.
And, as I’ve worked to see the inherited protocols (to get these dragons out from the cave and into the daylight, in Holmes’ words above) that have shaped my life, I’ve also been working to critically examine them and make an active choice of whether to follow them or not. As Holmes put it so well, after examining them, I have to kill them or tame them to make them useful for me. So, I’ve been asking questions like… What is my moral code? My inherited religious one, or one I work out for myself? Why am I in the field of law? Do I want to be or is that a track I’ve followed for prestige or to please others?
As you can see, it’s been a busy year.
And after working and thinking about these issues for a good long while, the Summer of Protocols ☀️ program appeared, like a golden ticket to Mr. Wonka’s Chocolate Factory. I get to spend the next 4 months researching Unconscious Protocol Participation, talking and thinking about it with other people interested in protocols, and they (the Ethereum Foundation) are even paying me for it! What a gig!
I’ll be thinking about these concepts in a broader sense, of course, than my own personal experience, but my personal experience and all the reading and learning (and unlearning) I’ve done so far have shown me that I’m not the only person who has been living in an invisible matrix built by others. I think the fields of religious studies, psychology, philosophy, law, and many other areas will be good places to start my more formal research, and I would love any suggestions or advice from you, the reader.
The awesome thing about Summer of Protocols is that it is explicitly open in how I shape my project and the outputs I produce. I will probably write an essay or think piece as my work product, but who knows, you might see a short story or some other crazy creation! One thing you will not see is something that follows legal citation rules or is ready for submission to an academic journal in a particular discipline. In this project, I’m killing off the dragons of citation rules and disciplinary boundaries!
In the past, I’ve used Twitter as a research tool, throwing out wacky questions and loving the discussion and ideas that emerge. My plan is to share glimpses of my work on Unconscious Protocol Participation along the way, both in my newly launched Just Trying Something newsletter, and on Twitter and possibly other social media sites. I’ll keep you posted. The best way to follow along is to follow me everywhere and subscribe to my newsletter! 🥰🙏
In case you couldn’t tell, I am really excited about my summer research project, and exploring new paths based on my own protocols. I invite you to join me on the journey! It should be fun!
P.S. - If you already know me, and are confused about whether I’m still a law professor and crypto researcher (often called a ‘critic’), check out my post Introducing ‘Just Trying Something’. TLDR: I’m resigning as a professor at the end of this academic year and am trying something new! Not sure yet how crypto will fit in.