In December 2011, the project “FESTOS - Foresight of Evolving Security Threats Posed by Emerging Technologies” was finalised with a conference at Brussels. The foresight study, financed by the European Commission, was aimed at the „Dark Side of Technology“. Looking ahead to the year 2030, new risks posed by nanotechnologies, biotechnologies, and information technologies were identified in a scanning process. Based on this, the FESTOS team outlined in an “out of the box” brainstorming four “threat scenarios”.

• “Cyber-Insects Attack”

• “The Genetic Blackmailers”

• “At the Flea Market”

• “We’ll Change Your Mind”

K. Steinmüller was invited to write the scenarios – just like short science fiction stories. More information about the project is available in a (German language) paper by Roman Peperhove and in Foresight Brief 225 of the European Foresight Platform.