S&T News

Nano Futures: Exploring the future of nanotechnology

The Center for Nanotechnology in Society at Arizona State University (CNS-ASU) invites you to help design the future of nanotechnology.

READ, REVISE, RANT: Some say that Nanotechnology will revolutionize life as we know it, but what should we really expect from the future of nanotechnology? CNS developed 6 plausible product descriptions to provide some structure to discussions about nanotechnology. These fictional scenes have been evaluated by nanoscale scientists and engineers for technical plausibility- it is up to you to weigh social, economic, ethical, environmental and political plausibility-and desirability!!

Through an interactive website, the NanoFutures experiment invites citizens, scientists and engineers, social scientists, policy makers, and others interested in nanotechnology to assess the potentials and perils of nano-enabled futures. On this site you can:

READ the scenes: What if ultra fast sequencing technology is used to analyze the DNA in harvested waste water? What if you could predict disease before the onset of symptoms? What if your intelligence was enhanced with a brain chip?  What if, instead of prisons, convicted criminals were injected with disabling drugs that were activated if the prisoners misbehaved?

REVISE the scenes in a wiki:  the scenes are predominately technical- what about social values, religious viewpoints, economic feasibility, and ethical desirability? Edit the scenes to create richer portraits of the implications of the technology.

You can also write your own scenario about nanotechnologies’ development!

RANT about and discuss the scenes: What are your thoughts on the implications of nanotechnology? Are there some technologies that should not be developed? Who should control nanotechnology? Click here.