What impact will quantum have?

Delft is a pioneer in the field of quantum technology. At QuTech, TU Delft and TNO have joined forces to work on quantum computers and the quantum internet. As well as opening doors for the Dutch business community, it raises many questions.

How will the arrival of quantum technology affect industry and society? A team of Delft researchers has spent the last few months trying to answer this question. Pieter Vermaas and Deborah Nas were two of the leaders of this TU Delft Quantum Vision Team. 

Expectations are high for quantum technology: soon we will be able to develop materials and medication on a molecular level and unlock secrets of the universe with super telescopes, and we will have an unhackable internet. At least, that’s the idea. But much of this is still conjecture. “It’s not dissimilar to the arrival of laser, which was developed in university labs in the 1950s and 1960s,” says Pieter Vermaas, associate professor of ethics and philosophy. “It wasn’t until decades later that our lives changed dramatically with applications such as CD players, laser surgery and laser printers. We expect that quantum technology will also have a major impact on industry and society, but, as in those days, we don’t know exactly how and when. What we do know is that completely new technologies like this can have unexpected, and perhaps even undesirable, consequences. It’s also our responsibility as scientists to reflect on that.”

The Quantum Vision team's exploratory work is a first step towards investigating the impact of quantum technology. “Quantum is still in the research phase. We can only make a realistic impact assessment once we have an idea of the applications,” says Deborah Nas, alumna and professor of strategic design for technology-based innovation. “Many of those applications have yet to be discovered. We have been working with the Vision team to identify possibilities, but we also see potential for our alumni to play a key role here. We hope that they will put the subject on the agenda within their own organisations and think about how they could use quantum technology.” 

Quantum campus

Collaboration with businesses is vital for the development of quantum technology. “Innovation is much more likely to succeed if you involve the government and the business community at an early stage,” says Nas. “In Delft, we are building a quantum ecosystem, a Q campus, where we can work together.” Such an innovation ecosystem centres around researchers and laboratories, but also includes start-up facilities and links to investors and industry. QuTech, a quantum institute where people from TNO and TU Delft collaborate with Microsoft and Intel, among others, plays a central role on the Q campus. 

One of the subjects that QuTech focuses on is the quantum internet, which is set to be the first working application of quantum technology. “Building quantum computers with enough qubits to outperform traditional computers is still a long way off, but a quantum internet can already function on the basis of hardware with a few qubits,” says Nas. 

QuTech has introduced the first Dutch simulator of a quantum computer. (Photo: Sam Rentmeester)

Values

In order to steer the development of quantum technology in the right direction for society, you also need to involve society in the Delft quantum ecosystem. This then leads to socially responsible innovation. As such, in addition to applications such as the quantum internet, the Vision team also looked at governance: “In its current form, the internet complies with all kinds of standards and values that are important to us as a society, such as security, privacy, free access and net neutrality. To safeguard this, over the years we have developed regulations and control mechanisms. We'll have to do that again when developing a quantum internet,” says Vermaas. However, our tendency to talk about new technology in extremes is complicating the public debate on this theme. “Look at robotics and artificial intelligence: it is either applauded or reviled. People like to think in hype or doom scenarios. The same thing is happening with quantum technology,” says Vermaas. “The fear is that quantum computers will soon be able to decode all our encryption methods, disrupt our financial systems and thus plunge society into chaos.” 

Evolution, not revolution

By also thinking about the doomsday scenarios, we can take action early on and thus prevent extreme situations. The discussions that the Vision team had with banks and ministries showed that many agencies are already working on this. Quantum computers may indeed pose a risk to our current cybersecurity systems. “Something that quantum computers will be very good at is factoring very large numbers into their prime factors. Traditional computers can’t do this, and that is precisely what a lot of encryption is based on, which we use to secure digital signatures and communications over the internet, among other things. So that’s something that a lot of organisations will have to prepare for,” says Nas. Fortunately, there’s still plenty of time. “From a technological point of view, quantum technology really is revolutionary, but quantum computers are not likely to appear overnight. So, we still have time to adapt.” <<

Want to know more?

The Quantum Vision Team has published its findings in a magazine. “We hope that if offers an accessible introduction to quantum technology and its impact, while stimulating further discussion and collaboration on the subject.” 

You can read the Quantum Vision magazine online at: qutech.nl/quantum-internet-magazine