Exploring a domain through its metaphors helps question the discursive framings that may be specific to it. Texts received by the CEA and ILCEA4 in the context of the project named “Imaginaires du quantique” seem appropriate for an analysis through their metaphors for reasons we start by presenting: prevalence of metaphorical terms, use of metaphors to explain complex phenomena, divide between conceptual metaphors used by different actors in the field. One of the objectives of our work is to consider whether contrasting perspectives can be identified concerning representations of the field and its social impact, more specifically when it comes to quantum computing and its potentialities. We start by considering the main conceptual metaphors in the corpus. We then propose a differentiated analysis according to the type of actor using the metaphor (physicist academic, academic from other disciplines, private sector). Through this analysis we hope to shed light on representations of quantum physics by its actors especially when it comes to describing the limits of the discipline and questions where a scientific consensus has not been reached yet.
Exploring a domain through its metaphors helps question the discursive framings that may be specific to it. Texts received by the CEA and ILCEA4 in the context of the project named “Imaginaires du quantique” seem appropriate for an analysis through their metaphors for reasons we start by presenting: prevalence of metaphorical terms, use of metaphors to explain complex phenomena, divide between conceptual metaphors used by different actors in the field. One of the objectives of our work is to consider whether contrasting perspectives can be identified concerning representations of the field and its social impact, more specifically when it comes to quantum computing and its potentialities. We start by considering the main conceptual metaphors in the corpus. We then propose a differentiated analysis according to the type of actor using the metaphor (physicist academic, academic from other disciplines, private sector). Through this analysis we hope to shed light on representations of quantum physics by its actors especially when it comes to describing the limits of the discipline and questions where a scientific consensus has not been reached yet.
Visions of future technologies shape their development trajectories, making them important objects of ethical analysis. This paper examines contemporary visions of quantum computing and the futures they project. First, we analyse vision statements by key actors in the field, focusing on anticipated technical affordances, the applications these give rise to, their associated domains, and the value-laden terms used to describe these projections. Drawing on these insights, we distil four main visions of quantum computing, each framing its societal relevance differently: as a contributor to the public good, a scientific tool, an economic asset, or a geopolitical advantage. Second, we highlight ethically salient patterns and presuppositions embedded within these visions, including a pervasive techno-optimism paired with techno-solutionist reasoning; the prevalence of promissory language used to legitimise innovation agendas; and a morally ambivalent discourse shaped by the interests of a narrow group of powerful actors. Taken together, these features form a figurative heatmap of potential ethical concerns in contemporary visions of quantum computing that warrant closer ethical scrutiny and point to avenues for further research.
Quantum physics surpasses human imagination. It totally contradicts everyday experiences. Even literal and mathematical explanations cannot substitute for a non-intuitive behavior that puzzles many of us. Commercial quantum computers are in reach within this decade. History provides examples that the appearance of new technologies brought metaphors to life that may explain up to that point poorly understood knowledge domains (e.g., "brains are hardware while thoughts are software"). The author describes why the proliferation of quantum computers will be accompanied by the rise of metaphors that explain quantum effects. For one, those might help to better communicate about the best use and consequences of quantum computers. But those metaphors could also shed light on organizational performance at all. To show a practical example, the author proposes how the use of quantum metaphors could help organizations to prepare for the quantum computing era - without being exact in predictions about most likely technical implementation of quantum capabilities.
Quantum computing is attracting increasing attention due to both the threats and the opportunities it may present. Nonetheless, the technology is still nascent and thus far lacks substantive commercial applications that can demonstrate, let alone validate, its potential impact. This uncertainty challenges organizations’ ability to make strategic decisions concerning quantum computing. In this study, we explored the practitioners’ discourse about quantum computing and the metaphors used to describe the technology and its prospective value. Building on a thematic analysis of 140 video presentations by quantum computing practitioners, we identified ten distinct metaphors of quantum computing. Subsequently, we sorted the metaphors based on the perceived feasibility and strategic potential of the technology to reveal four ways quantum computing may impact the prevailing digital logic. These findings shed light on the alternative development paths of quantum computing business applications and extend the theoretical foundation of this incipient discourse.
In recent years, the quantum computing industry has seen significant investment and growth. However, this burgeoning industry faces a persistent labour gap: individuals with computing expertise, an understanding of quantum principles, and the ability to apply these principles to computing practices, are in increasing demand, but finding such individuals is proving challenging. We frame this problem as one of education, arguing that a computing-centred approach to learning about quantum computing is needed, and that the notion of computational thinking can help to define appropriate learning goals and outcomes in this context. We propose that metaphors can be an effective pedagogical tool in supporting the development of 'quantum computational thinking'. In this paper, we present our efforts to gather and assess a collection of metaphors that are currently used to teach quantum computing concepts. We describe a series of interviews with quantum computing experts in which we aimed to elicit such metaphors, and document our process of metaphor identification and metaphorical model synthesis. We subsequently assess these metaphors and models using both numerical rating data from experts and our own qualitative analysis. Informed by our findings, we suggest ways of developing metaphors that better support quantum computational thinking: emphasising target concepts' computational roles, acknowledging connections between concepts, and balancing procedural narratives with embodied, tangible imagery.
This book explores the modern physicist Niels Bohr’s philosophical thought, specifically his pivotal idea of complementarity, with a focus on the relation between the roles of what he metaphorically calls “spectators” and “actors.” It seeks to spell out the structural and historical complexity of the idea of complementarity in terms of different modes of the ‘spectator-actor’ relation, showing, in particular, that the reorganization of Bohr’s thought starting from his 1935 debate with Einstein and his collaborators is characterized by an extension of the dynamic conception of complementarity from non-physical contexts to the very field of quantum theory. Further, linked with this analysis, the book situates Bohr’s complementarity in contemporary philosophical context by examining its intersections with post-Heideggerian hermeneutics as well as Derridean deconstruction. Specifically, it points to both the close affinities and the differences between Bohr’s idea of the ‘actor-spectator’ relation and the hermeneutic notion of the relation between “belonging” and “distanciation.”
The representation and processing of concepts is one of the hardest challenges in cognitive science. While computer scientists and engineers have focused on developing advances for particular tasks, philosophers and cognitive scientists have focused on elucidating the structural nature of meaning. A remarkable bridge between these two limited-success approaches can be found in behavioral research, since, in a variety of tasks, humans process information at a conceptual level in a way that is incompatible with classical probability and fuzzy set theory. Recently, attempts have been made to use mathematical schemes founded on quantum structures as alternative approaches. For this reason, the application of quantum structures to this type of phenomena has received increasing attention. The quantum approach allows to faithfully model a number of non-classical deviations observed in experimental data. Moreover, it shows that genuine quantum theoretical notions, such as contextuality, superposition, emergence, and entanglement, are powerful epistemic tools to understand and represent cognitive phenomena. In this thesis, we identify the limitations of classical theories to handle some important cognitive tasks, and introduce the fundamentals of the quantum cognitive approach to concepts. Next, we perform a mathematical analysis of current concept combination models and develop an extension that allows for concrete representations of multiple exemplars simultaneously. Our analysis indicates that a superposition of logical reasoning and a specific form of non-logical reasoning, where non-logical reasoning is dominant, allows to faithfully represent the experimental data. Therefore, the non-logical reasoning introduced by this model represents an important but unexplored form of reasoning in humans. In addition, we develop novel experimental methodologies to identify quantum conceptual structures for concept combinations in the context of natural language processing and psychological experiments. Namely, we present a methodology to build entangled concepts represented as sets of words with respect to a corpus of text, and present a computational and psychological methodology to discern if a collection of concepts behaves statistically as a collection of quantum or classical particles. Using both methodologies we have identified a significant presence of quantum conceptual structure in the context of natural language processing and psychological experiments.