Field Guide 002: The Protocol
Grief causes latency.
When you are processing the failure of a biological function, or waiting for a pathology result, your system resources are diverted to basic survival. You are running on emergency power.
This creates a vulnerability.
The world will continue to send you high-bandwidth inputs: Intrusive questions. Unsolicited advice. Toxic positivity.
Under normal operating conditions, you could handle these inputs. You could be polite. You could explain the nuance. But right now? You don't have the RAM.
The Solution: Outsourcing
We realised we couldn't patch the users (other people). They will always generate noise. So, we built a firewall.
The Protocol is a web-based response generator. It is a piece of defensive software designed to sit between you and the noise.
It treats social interaction as a security problem. It identifies the Trigger (e.g., "Just Relax") and generates a Response based on four distinct voices we identified during our time in the trenches:
- The Diplomat: Graceful boundaries. Keeps the relationship intact.
- "Thank you. We're working with specialists on what's actually treatable."
- The Critic: Direct challenge. Factual, pointed, doesn't suffer fools.
- "Survivorship bias isn't medical advice."
- The Absurdist: Sardonic humour. Makes the ridiculous obvious.
- "I'll ask my ovaries to meditate."
- The Realist: Honest and grounded. No games.
- "The treatments failed. We didn't. But it took time to understand the difference."
How to use it
Do not memorise the scripts. That defeats the purpose. The goal is dissociation.
When the input comes, do not engage emotionally. Open the tool. Select the threat level. Read the line off the screen like a customer service agent reading a returns policy.
It is cold. It is impersonal. That is the point. You are preserving the integrity of your own system.
If the system remains stable, Buy Us A Chip.
