The convergence of science fiction imagination and technological reality offers unique insights for urban technology planning and policy development. This technology foresight review examines the evolution of smartdust technology from its conceptual origins in hard science fiction to current research trajectories, using Peter F. Hamilton’s Great North Road as a focal analytical framework. While the concept of autonomous micro-scale machines in fiction traces back at least to Stanisław Lem’s The Invincible (Lem, The Invincible. A Continuum Book, 1964), Hamilton’s detailed treatment provides the most comprehensive framework for analyzing contemporary smartdust trajectories. Through systematic analysis of publications spanning smartdust research, edge computing, urban surveillance, and science fiction studies, we trace the technological pathways between fictional speculation and emerging reality. Our analysis reveals that while current smartdust prototypes operate at millimeter scale with limited autonomous capabilities, the convergence of edge computing, energy harvesting advances, and distributed artificial intelligence suggests achievable progression toward micron-scale, intelligent sensor networks within 30–50 years, though such projections remain contingent on breakthroughs and investments that are far from guaranteed. However, technical challenges in miniaturization and energy autonomy pale compared to the social, ethical, and governance barriers that fiction often glosses over. This review contributes a systematic methodological framework for extracting actionable technology insights from hard science fiction and demonstrates how speculative narratives can inform evidence-based urban planning while highlighting the critical importance of addressing privacy, behavioral autonomy, and democratic governance concerns proactively rather than reactively.
Semerikov et al. (2026) studied this question.