Protocolization as a cognitive primitve
That is: reifying episodes of experience and discovering and re-enacting patterns of interaction is what minds do, down at the most basic level. Some elevated thinkers like to say that we are composed of stories, which isn't wrong, but stories are mere fictions, protocols are what we actually do, our real-world habits and routines.
This might explain why the idea of protocols seems so powerful.
Bur it wasn't protocols so much as their formation (protocolization) that seems to be the kind of building block you could use to construct minds. A powerful and general learning mechanism. Something that could underlie both motor learning (where it had to have originated) and higher-level patterns
Note: this concept of a protocol might be out of sync with Venkat's vision of New Nature. I seem to be more interested in protocolish things in old nature
This is part of my ongoing series, once every ten years I emit one of these: