"Nano-imaginaries" in a Future Smart Environment: Breakdown of a Three Round Delphi Study

This report summarizes the key findings of a three round Delphi study involving nanotechnologists, Technology Assessment experts, and citizens in Flanders, on the future of a nanotechnology-enabled smart environment. First it lays out the conceptual basis and methodological design of the Delphi study from the perspective of the Flemish Interactive Technology Assessment project ‘Nanotechnologies for Tomorrow’s Society’, which the authors coordinate. It then discerns respondents’ envisaged solutions or responses to key issues or problems in relation to nanotechnology’s emergence, thereby identifying recurrent themes in respondents’ narratives, including personalization, user convenience, and prevention, which, it is argued, are all concerned with the more fundamental issues of human control over nature and human destiny. The report also gives a brief impression of the resultant ‘nano-imaginaries’ which emerged in the final round and concludes with a critical afterthought in view of the objectives which the Delphi study sought to achieve.