Unlocking the futures of nanotechology. Future-oriented narratives and access to the public discourse on nanoscale

Futuristic visions have accompanied the development of nanotechnology since Eric K. Drexler popularized the word with his 1986 book Engines of creation. Future-oriented narratives about expectations and promises of nanoscale technologies have a centre stage in the public discourse, but their statute is anything but controversial. Both prospected innovations and the discourse on anticipated innovation have garnered attention by scholars and commentators: on the one hand, literature focused on the transformative and disruptive power of nanoscale technologies, discussing their potential ethical, social, economic impacts (e.g. HLEG 2005; Ott and Papilloud 2007; Roco and Bainbridge 2001, 2002; Whitman 2007); on the other hand, the disrupting impacts of the underlying values and assumptions of visions and future-oriented narratives on our current ethical and cultural system have been examined (Cameron 2005; Grunwald 2007; Khushf 2005; Schummer 2007).