ABSTRACT
Prototypes engage individuals and communities with technologies and governance in a similar way in which metaphors engage us with language. Both metaphors and prototypes create transient, ephemeral, and often imperfect and fragile objects and meanings that support further use. The metaphors of computing have inspired powerful algorithms that define modern infrastructures, but they have also become metaphors for good governance. Personal and idiosyncratic fantasies in language and technology explore diverse entrepreneurial, educational, and political aspirations that must remain open to save the future as an open and public resource. We propose sandboxes as environments that support the experience of new metaphors for computing and society, without reducing one to the other.
