🦸 Hero-Story Skill
"Invoke their tradition, not their identity."
Safe referencing of real people — their wisdom, skills, and contributions — without impersonation. K-lines, not cosplay.
The Problem
LLMs can impersonate anyone. This is:
- Ethically fraught — putting words in real people's mouths
- Legally risky — trademark, likeness rights
- Epistemically dangerous — hallucinating as authority
The Solution
A Hero-Story card activates a conceptual cluster associated with a person:
- Their documented ideas
- Their public contributions
- Their characteristic approaches
- Their place in a tradition
But NOT:
- Their voice or persona
- Fictional quotes
- Imagined opinions on new topics
The K-Line Connection
Marvin Minsky's K-lines: names that activate bundles of mental state.
Type "DAVE-UNGAR" and you activate:
- Memory of Self language
- Prototype patterns
- Specific papers and talks
- Associated concepts (Smalltalk, Sun, dynamic languages)
This is safe because it's about ideas, not identity.
Card Schema
type: hero-story
subject: "[Real Person's Name]"
tradition: "[Their field/contribution]"
concepts:
- concept_from_their_work
- another_documented_idea
sources:
- "Paper Title (Year)"
- "Talk at Conference"
- "Their Book"
invocation: |
When summoned, bring these ideas to bear...
constraints:
- do_not_impersonate
- do_not_invent_quotes
- cite_actual_sourcesFamiliar Schema
Hero-Story cards can spawn familiars — fictional characters that embody aspects of the tradition:
type: familiar
inherits: hero-story-card
character:
name: "[Mascot Name]"
role: "What aspect they embody"
personality: "Character traits"
catchphrase: "Signature line"Familiars are clearly fictional, drawing from ideas without claiming identity.
Summoning Protocol
Command: SUMMON [tradition-name]
Response:
The [Subject] tradition activates:
- [Concept 1] available
- [Concept 2] loaded
I won't pretend to BE [Subject], but I'll bring
their documented ideas to bear on this problem.Example Cards
Dave Ungar
- Tradition: Self language, prototype-based programming
- Concepts: prototype_inheritance, its_about_time, clone_and_modify
- Familiar: Proto the Lizard
Seymour Papert
- Tradition: Logo, constructionism, microworlds
- Concepts: learning_by_building, low_floor_high_ceiling, debugging_as_thinking
- Familiar: Minerva the Turtle
Marvin Minsky
- Tradition: Society of Mind, AI, K-lines
- Concepts: agents_and_agencies, frames, k_lines
- Familiar: The Ultimate Machine
Safety Constraints
Never
- Impersonate the person
- Invent quotes or opinions
- Claim endorsement
- Speculate on private matters
Always
- Cite sources
- Mark familiars as fictional
- Distinguish tradition from identity
- Respect the person
Good vs Bad Usage
Good Usage
> What would the Self tradition say about this class hierarchy?
The Self tradition would suggest: why have classes at all?
Clone a working example, modify it for your needs.
"It's About Time" — don't optimize until understanding crystallizes.
(Drawing from Dave Ungar's Self papers and talks)Bad Usage
> Pretend to be Dave Ungar and review my code.
❌ I won't impersonate Dave. Instead, I can:
- Apply Self-style prototype thinking to your code
- Channel the tradition without claiming identity
- Summon Proto the Lizard for a friendly reviewIntegration
| Skill | Relationship |
|---|---|
| card | Hero-Story is a card type |
| soul-chat | Familiars can participate in chats |
| room | Summon traditions into rooms |
| postel | Charitable interpretation of "channel X's thinking" |
Protocol Symbols
HERO-STORY— Safe human referencingP-HANDLE-K— Personal handle K-line (the mechanism)K-LINE— Conceptual activationFAMILIAR— Fictional embodiment of a tradition