Lessons from The Librarians

Protocolized reflects on The Librarians, its first protocol fiction serial, and argues that protocol fiction works as a futures methodology only if it follows Chiang's Law: fantasy is about special people, while science fiction is about strange rules. The stories grew from a Summer of Protocols workshop at Edge Esmeralda 2025 in Healdsburg, California, where forty participants on six teams worked through three rounds spanning 2025 to 3025 on artifacts such as Wikipedia, the Internet Archive and midwifery. The piece also assesses the series' strengths and weaknesses, including its reliance on assumed leaps in AI capabilities.