The event horizon of Q is quantum computing and communication. On 2 January 2014 Edward Snowden, whistle-blower to some, traitor to others, dropped the Q Bomb: top secret documents leaked to the Washington Post revealed a $79 million dollar program to develop a quantum computer to encrypt, de-crypt and mine data. As the forerunners of quantum innovation – that has been likened by some involved as potentially equivalent to the advent of fire – universities bear a special responsibility to take up the quantum challenge. The Q Effect roundtable will assess the diplomatic and military, financial and developmental, political and ethical implications of a quantum world that is no longer microphysical, metaphorical or potential, but macrophysical, literal and actual.
Questions to consider:
What is the role of media, surveillance and other observational practices in producing Q effects?
Who will Q benefit?
Who will Q harm?
What quantum events – the‘white swans’ of the Southern Hemisphere with low probability but of high consequence – are over the horizon?
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