Anticipating the Impacts of Integrating Disruptive Technologies from Societal Dialogues, A Promising Tool?

The recent history of technological development has taught us that it is essential to consider a technology's social readiness level before considering its integration into society. While we have relied heavily from the outset on local participation to prepare for this integration, some experiences have been more positive than others. Two examples, nanotechnology in France and the Montreal Declaration in Quebec, can serve as benchmarks for the necessary conversation around current advances in future quantum technologies, even before they are developed. In the context of the creation of Sherbrooke's Quantum Innovation Zone, DistriQ, the “Quantum Dialogues” project launched from the Institut quantique (Université de Sherbrooke) aims to foster collaborations between the research community, entrepreneurs and society in an integrated dialogue-based approach. This article focuses on the first phase of this project: the application of a specific participatory practice, the Transformative Scenario Planning, from Kahane [1], to the development of quantum technologies at multiple levels of governance structures.