The public's perspective

As science and industry propel quantum technology forward, it’s important to keep society involved in the process.

Kamiel Dankers

Quantum and Society

This magazine focuses on the select group of people around the world that work with quantum technology in their daily lives. However, they account for only a tiny fraction of the world population. The majority of people worldwide have never worked with quantum technology and might not even have heard of the concept. Even though these people do not have a direct influence on the development of the technology, they play an essential role in the future of quantum technology. For quantum technology to reach its full potential, it has to be accepted and supported by society.

The mysteries of quantum theory have always intrigued millions of people and have been used as an inspiration for several publications in popular culture. An example of this is the 1990s bestseller written by Gary Zukav named The dancing Wu Li masters. This book describes parallels between quantum theory and “modern psychology and metaphorical abstractions to Buddhism and Taoism.” A more recent example is the Marvel superhero Ant-Man, who will be starring in the upcoming movie (2023) Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. In a previous movie Ant-Man unknowingly became “quantumly entangled” with his friend in the “quantum realm”, later he has to build a “quantum tunnel” to save one of his friends. Even though most appearances of quantum theory in popular culture are far from physically correct, they can be important to incite enthusiasm and interest in quantum theory.

The Quantum Classroom

During our time in a high school class the curiosity for quantum mechanics in society was very clear. A presentation was prepared to engage the class and hopefully get some of their views and a few questions on the topic. Above all expectations, it took a single minute before the first hand was raised with an interesting question. From that moment onwards, the hands did not stop reaching for the ceiling for the rest of the hour. After a very intense and interesting 45 minutes the presentation was only one-third finished due to all the questions.

This enthusiasm has to be used by the quantum community to get a broader public engaged in quantum mechanics and technology. At the moment, the community is actively working to get an increasing number of people in society interested in quantum technology. On YouTube, videos that correctly explain quantum computing have tens of millions of views, newspapers publish regularly on the latest breakthroughs and quantum screen time on national television is growing. Another great example of building quantum awareness in society is Quantum Inspire, allowing everyone, quantum expert or layperson, to execute their own quantum algorithms on an actual quantum computer. Those engaging efforts have to be intensified to prepare society for the implementation of quantum technology.

Back to Basics

The most famous quantum related quote is attributed to Richard Feynman: “If you think you understand quantum mechanics, you don’t understand quantum mechanics.” This view of quantum mechanics being incomprehensible, harms the endeavor to create a bigger quantum knowledge among laypersons. However, it does summarize the tension for someone that wants to explain quantum theory. Because actually there are many things that we do not intuitively understand, think of the wavefunction collapse, the measurement problem and non-locality. In recent years, the number of statements similar to this quote has been decreasing. The focus shifts to trying to understand and discuss the fundamental issues that quantum theory exposes.

In this struggle for more quantum engagement and understanding, quantum theory is blessed with the Schrödinger’s cat thought experiment. This eyebrow raising experiment perfectly catches the strangeness of quantum mechanics and is therefore used regularly to explain quantum mechanics to laypersons.

In conclusion, it is essential for the future of quantum technology that society is involved in quantum technology. Quantum technology has the advantage of an immense inherent interest in its mysteries. However, the challenge for the quantum community is to keep away from the idea of quantum being incomprehensible and teach the basics to the broader public. The tools needed to do so, such as the Schrödinger’s cat thought experiment and Quantum Inspire, are present. By intensifying their efforts, the quantum community can get society in shape for the quantum era.