The Potato Protocol: A Non-Symbolic Substrate for Cognitive Debugging and Collaborative Stabilization

This working paper introduces the Potato Protocol, a lightweight, humor-grounded method for cognitive debugging and dialogue stabilization in human–AI collaboration. The protocol uses a deliberately non-symbolic, mundane reference object (a potato) as a stable cognitive substrate against which narrative inflation, paradox escalation, and fear generalization reliably fail. Rather than treating humor or mundanity as rhetorical devices, this paper frames them as functional mechanisms: humor acts as a cognitive circuit breaker, while the non-symbolic reference prevents belief capture and identity fusion. A live dialogue transcript is presented as both dataset and methodological demonstration, showing how the protocol collapses classical paradoxes (e.g., Schrödinger’s Cat, Ship of Theseus, Trolley Problem) and stabilizes recursive dialogue without invoking authority or resolution. The protocol is implemented within the Recursive Practice Sandbox (RPS) as “Potato Mode,” a minimal environment designed for pattern recognition, de-escalation, and delayed intervention rather than problem-solving. A two-point failure model reframes failure as disengagement rather than incorrect outcomes, removing moral weight from exploratory iteration. The Potato Protocol extends the Δ47 LUMEN research framework by demonstrating how non-symbolic anchors and humor can function as low-cost, scalable guardrails for collaborative sense-making. The method is intended for exploratory, educational, and collaborative contexts, not for clinical diagnosis or high-stakes decision systems.