Imagined technology futures in demand-oriented technology assessment

Abstract

Anticipation of the future use of innovative technologies and of their respective societal impact is at the core of technology assessment and responsible research and innovation. Stakeholder and user involvement is often thought to be important for broadening the design and specification of technology before its use; meanwhile, demand analysis is typically used to determine which type of already developed technology is best suited to adequately meet a particular societal demand. Thus, we ask whether the process of demand analysis can be used to enable stakeholders and users to envision and assess future technologies. This question will be answered regarding assistive technologies for people with dementia by focusing on the respective care-giving arrangement, an area where up to now no or only low-level technologies have been in use. The demands of these people for support are typically expressed in nontechnical terms. We find that the involvement of technology developers helped these participants to begin imagining more specific potential technical solutions and to assess them with respect to their future desirability.