Terminological Twists Challenge
Heads Up: This contest is now closed. We are in the process of reviewing – entrants can expect to hear back by May 6th, 2025.
Protocolized magazine invites you to compete in a science fiction story contest to reverse engineer the protocolized future!
Ready to submit? Send your story, a ~100 word synopsis, and if applicable, your “writing with AI protocol” to research@summerofprotocols.com
Looking for inspiration? Check out recent issues of Protocolized, especially Fault Tolerance, to get a sense of what we’re looking for.
Select a term for a technical or procedural concept with protocolish connotations and write a short story that explores some unexpected and startling implication of the concept. Examples to consider: packet switching, boot sequence, cap-and-trade, chain of custody, kill-chain, zero-knowledge proof, multisig, social distancing, fuel partitioning, priority boarding, self-checkout, vampire sneeze, 5-second rule, first-in-first-out.
The story can be set either realistic or speculative, but must use either the chosen term itself, or a clear derivative or allusion, as the title. We invite you to cast a wide net and look for ideas and candidate terms in a variety of domains, including but not limited to: Computing, climate, healthcare, logistics, finance, policing, maintenance, first response, military, everyday life, and space travel. But your chosen term must already exist and have a real meaning that is explored in the story (ie don’t write a story called “teleportation safety check” but you could write one called “seatbelt law” that imagines how our familiar automotive seat belt laws might fare in a speculative teleportation device).
Need some brainstorming support? Join the contest channel on our Discord and swap ideas and notes with fellow competitors!
Your mission: tell an entertaining and thought-provoking tale that creatively explores the human, societal, or existential implications of your terminological twist.
Length: 1500-3000 words
Submission Deadline: April 21st
Prizes: The top three stories will be eligible for publication in Protocolized in addition to a cash prize (1st - $2500, 2nd - $2000, 3rd - $1500). Additional finalists, from places 4th to 10th, could be offered our standard $750 for a commissioned piece.
Be sure to keep the guiding principle of our publication, Chiang’s Law, in mind:
Fantasy is about special people, science fiction is about special rules.
Also keep Fred Pohl’s famous dictum in mind: The task of the science fiction writer is to predict not the automobile, but the traffic jam.
Please review our standard submission guidelines page for some extra tips. We encourage you to make creative use of LLMs to compose your story (in which case we ask that you document and submit your “writing with AI” protocol along with your entry).
Check out past editions of Protocolized here.
Good luck!
