ALT What do we mean by rules? Technology rules. It rocks, reigns, and restricts. Other things rule too: states (famously, and now repackaged into short form DnD content), ants, Elon Musk, Gordon Moore, platforms, protocols, and dril. Every day we operate under the layered, entangled, and frequently contradictory logic imposed on us from any number of these different sources. Sometimes they can be extremely generative: sheet music is a set of rules to produce a song, lines of code the same for a program. Just as often, however, they can become restrictive, encroaching, and unintelligible. Vibes we would like to see: The NIST standard for lighting a cigarette. Three felonies a day. Getting a text and making yourself wait before responding. The move-fast-break-things to extremely-specific-content-moderation-policy pipeline. The internationally approved frequencies for amateur ham radio operators to contact the International Space Station.

ALT Examples of things we’re interested in: Can we trace a rule from a minor de-facto technical issue to a society-defining standard? What’s with the self-imposed screen time helper device arms race? An entrepreneurship qua self-help face-off between Jordan Peterson’s 12 Rules for Life vs. Robert Greene’s 48 Laws of Power vs. Ray Dalio’s Principles vs. Andrew Huberman’s Protocols (throw any book about “agile” in too). The fine distinctions between rules, instructions, and recommendations. Is code still law? The Trial but with smart contracts. Governing bodies 7 letters acronyms or longer. Who are the W3C and what are they doing with my internet? The rules-driven pursuit of biohacked immortality. Trader Joe’s Brie importation gambit and other histories of business as regulatory arbitrage. The failure and/or reversal of the copyleft movement and the shifting party lines of the new IP debates. How you feel about the workwear guy. Rule-based art across disciplines.