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).
