Imagining and Writing Protopian Futures for New York City
"Protopian” is a word coined by Kevin Kelly, the founder of WIRED Magazine and one of the judges of the Protopian Prize Fiction Contest. The term means futures that are achievable and optimistic, characterized by continuous, incremental progress rather than revolutionary leaps or a static, perfect state.
In this workshop, we'll introduce participants to the practice of protopian futuring, walk through different imagination exercises, fiction writing prompts, and collective future-weaving that will help us co-create pathways to a future of New York City that's workably better than today.
Inspired by the contest's two prize categories (Public AI & Democratic Futures), we will explore visions of public infrastructure that are even more public; where AI is serving the public good in creative ways; where democratic processes are inspiring enthusiastic participation; where open source, civic technology is dominating the tech scene; and perhaps much more.
We can try using the 12 civic tech recommendations from Hey Mamdani! as a starting point for inspiration to imagine protopian futures of New York City.
Some example prompts might be:
Write a postcard from a future New Yorker telling you about the new-and-improved 311 system and how its helped their aging father feel less lonely
Write the headline news story about the group of tenants who used the real-time housing data to end building neglect and illegal rent hikes in their community.
Tell the story of the couple whose love letters were hidden inside public comments on a controversial city bill.
This futuring and writing workshop is co-hosted by Metagov's Protopian Prize Fiction Contest in collaboration with garden3d, a worker-owned creative collective, innovating on everything from brands and IRL communities to IoT devices and cross platform apps.
Participants will be invited to submit their stories to The Protopian Prize Fiction Contest - which is open for submissions until July 31st!
Workshop Facilitators:
Val Elefante (she/they) is an independent technology researcher & writer, and the Protopian Prize Project Lead at Metagov.
irawo ajasin (they/them) is a designer, technologist, educator, and research-based artist.
More About The Protopian Prize
The Protopian Prize is a short story fiction contest inviting storytellers, dreamers, and writers to share their visions of people working toward liberatory futures, meeting obstacles, and making real change. The contest is open until July 31st.
Submissions can be 500-6,000 words. Winners win $5K and publication in an anthology published by MIT Press.
Learn more at protopianprize.com.
Protopian stories imagine a future that is neither flawless nor catastrophic, but instead workably better than today. It’s about plausible progress rather than perfection or collapse.
The 2026 prize has 2 categories:
1) The Public AI Prize category invites writers to imagine AI development, policy, and tools, built for—and following basic principles of— public benefit. Stories might address ethical training, sustainable maintenance, creator-friendly implementation, collective rather than corporate ownership, and/or new uses that complement rather than replace human strengths. Judges for the Public AI Prize include Gideon Lichfield, Kevin Kelly, Arati Prabhakar, Deji Bryce Olukotun, and Hannu Rajaniemi.
2) The Democratic Futures Prize category invites us to imagine institutions, tools, and organizational methods that expand and enhance public autonomy and shared control over societal futures. Stories might address inclusive community-building, decision-making processes, better delivery of public goods, and/or new techniques for combating disinformation, surveillance, and authoritarian constraints. Judges for the Democratic Futures prize include Ruthanna Emrys Gordon, Karl Schroeder, Annalee Newitz, Ida Yoshinaga, and Henry Farrell.
This prize is sponsored by The Center for Cultural Innovation, Flower Hill Fund at the Boston Foundation, The Grant Innovation Lab at Metagov, Democracy Notes, and the BLOOM Project. Our partners include: Locus Magazine, Girls Write Now, Talk to the City, Democracy 2076, Clive Rd, and Folk Tech.
If you have any questions, please contact Val at [email protected] (Project Lead).