Abstract: Science and emerging technologies should not be predominantly tasked
with furnishing us with more sustainable societies. Continuous short-term
technological bail outs without taking into account the longer socio-cultural
incubation times required to transition to ‘weakly sustainable’ economies squander
valuable resources and time. Emerging technologies need to be deployed
strategically to buy time in order to have extended political, social and ethical
discussions about the root-causes of unsustainable economies and minimize social
disruptions on the path towards global sustainability.
Keywords: Nanoscience; nanotechnology; expanded materials design space;
dematerialization; sustainability; permanent resource crise
