Protocol, or the "Chivalry of the Object."

Author / Editor
Yeager, Stephen M.

Title
Protocol, or the "Chivalry of the Object."

Published
Critical Inquiry 45 (2019): 747-61.

Description
Focuses on how protocol, a term for systems of rules allowing communication and behavior, is frequently used in digital environments, and builds on Alexander Galloway’s comparison of internet protocol to chivalry in "Protocol: How Control Exists after Decentralization" (2004). Argues that internet protocols reveal the medievalism of digital culture. Distinguishes protocol (based on behavioral norms) from regulation (based on rules, which if broken incur penalties) and compares protocol to chivalry as the latter is described in Gent.

Chaucer Subjects
Gentilesse
Background and General Criticism