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Abstract

Open Protocols: Language and open source software

The study of language is impossible to achieve with objectivity because of the fluidity of meaning. There is nothing we can do to impose our ideas of orderliness on communication; neologisms, sarcasm, malapropisms, inference, ambiguity, and omission are all part of the business of conveying meaning from one person to another. In the same way, the Free and Open Source Software movement embraces ambiguity, subjective value, and innovation in its ethic. The idea of an open protocol takes these ideas one step further by combining them into something entirely new.

Outline

Universal language

  • John Wilkins
  • The idea of the perfect hackable language (HF 139, 185)
  • Universal languages fail because they tackle a dynamic problem with static tools
  • Ambiguity is a key part of human language
    • Symbol, metaphor, neologisms, sarcasm, malapropisms, inference, ambiguity, omission
  • The futility of the semantic web - "all symbols fall" (HF 245)
  • Lambda calculus, turing tape, and diophantine equations are successful universal languages, but only because they are meta-languages in that they can be adapted to represent any system.

A protocol for human communication

  • Define protocols in general. Usually static and well-defined.
  • A protocol for representing human communication must be "open": dynamic, complex, adaptable
  • Closed protocols eliminate possibilities, and limit participation to privileged members
  • Closed protocols are rigid, and fail to adapt to evolving language and change of context
  • Closed protocols are usually ok! But a protocol for speech must be open

Examples of open protocols

  • "Creation as communication" - nature is already the perfect language, and embraces ambiguity, symbol, etc (ToE 58)
  • Human language
    • Human language expands as it finds and appropriates symbols (emojis work differently than they were designed)
    • You can't create a meme of something unless you fully understand it (Pablo)
  • FOSS movement
  • The Web - in HTML, links are "nouns". Anyone can define one.
  • Open protocols are distinct from what we've been sold as openness - we're being open about how to communicate, not choosing to communicate everything (Carr, 114)

What open protocols get us

  • Anyone can build anything, and the market (i.e., people) can decide
  • This frees the medium from the custodians and makes it possible for better ideas to be discovered and adopted
  • "Trust the user" - Tech is not the solution to our problems, people are. Trust them, and let them innovate. This is what God did for us in nature - nature is permissionless.
  • Trusting the user is not the same as optimization through data, which optimizes for the "average". This is still technocratic.
  • At the same time, trust yourself. Open protocols allow developers to follow their own values in designing products.
  • An open protocol is developed in dialectic with users. As needs change, the protocol can adapt. As designers get things wrong, users will co-opt those features for new purposes.
  • Postell's law

Human agency in the digital world

  • Trade-off between convenience and control
  • "Cypherpunks code"
  • "Together we speak our world into being" (Carr, 19)
  • "Our autonomy takes the form of being a passenger." (Barba-Kay, 56)
  • "Our search for frictionlessness contains our search for a technology of perfect obedience." (Barba-Kay, 168)
  • We should resist the impulse to systematize. A complex system must be able to adapt to a complex world.
  • "I acknowledge that I am offering no special program for a better digital life... in part because I think that our grasping at policies and technical solutions is itself a sign of our current ordeal by data." (BK 246)
  • "A communication medium... is an instrument for regulating group behavior and belief." (Carr, 9)
  • Relativity, facts vs opinions - wikifreedia
  • https://rossulbricht.medium.com/decentralize-social-media-cc47dcfd4f99
  • https://medium.com/swlh/zkann-a-possible-solution-to-the-content-problem-6a4eec578b5b

A note of warning

  • A complex system will not work the same way as it matures. Society doesn't scale, which is why localism is important. Paritioning is a feature. (mops, Carr 127, 128)

this is not what people want or prefer, so how can we keep everything from falling apart due to user apathy?