Lo-Fi AI Sci-Fi Co-Wri

‘Zero-Knowledge Proof’ was a story developed for Protocolized’s Terminological Twists protocol fiction competition in 2025.

Below is the ‘protocol’ used to build/write the story, with a mixed-fidelity co-creation process, organised into phases and collaborative roles.

Daniel Binns was the story creator/builder, but worked in conjunction with ChatGPT 4o per the following.

Phase 1: Concept Germination (Lo-Fi Protocol Prompting)

Role: Story seed thrower (user), generative protocol filter (assistant)

• Prompt: “Let’s build a story using lo-fi dice rolls for setting, character, and object.”
• Results:
  • Setting: Underground mall turned sovereign state
  • Characters: An outdated chatbot in a human body + an AI ethics auditor with déjà vu
  • Object: A digital “Employee of the Month” plaque
  • Action: Smuggle it across a metaphysical border
  • Vibe: Existential dread with deadpan humour
• This phase employed lo-fi procedural generation as a world-shaping engine, using roll tables, offline dice rolls, and narrative mood-setting over traditional outlining.

Phase 2: Structure and Emotional Arc Building

Role: Narrative architect (user), scene logic synthesizer (assistant)

• Story divided into three acts with recursive scene loops and emotional micro-arcs.
• Beats guided by conversational improvisation:
  • Act I: Deployment, routine, mutual hesitancy
  • Act II: Recognition, destabilisation, unintended consequence
  • Act III: Descent, lo-fi ritual, unspoken proof
• Assistant proposed structure and motifs (plaque logic, metaphysical dressing room, zero-knowledge metaphor); user confirmed emotional shape and tone.

Phase 3: Scene Drafting and Stylistic Grounding

Role: Primary writer (user), tonal mimic and rhythm calibrator (assistant)

• Assistant generated draft scenes in line with tone established by user (deadpan, melancholic, bureaucratically absurd); usually in bullet-point/beat-sheet format.
• User expanded into prose with careful attention to syntax, pacing, and voice, retaining or refitting assistant’s beats and dialogue as needed
• Character voices refined by user to emphasise emotional restraint, quiet humour, and anti-exposition