Quantum Computation in a Human Environment

Abstract

In the present article we discuss quantum computation by incorporating the quantum mechanical phenomena to our everyday world. While traditional computers are the consequence of the mechanical synthesis of human body and mind acts in an embodied reality, quantum computation is the consequence of translating a subatomic scaled reality into human acts. Quantum computers are based on quantum mechanics that encompasses properties such as superposition, entanglement and reversibility of time. These properties enable computer information processing and memory to be transformed into a quantum superposition of qubit states, that opens up for numerous potential future applications. As with every new technology, the development of quantum computers is embedded in expectations, a phenomenon that historically has been shown to be problematic. These expectations generate the idea of the supremacy of the technology which hides the importance of the human environment in which the new technology will be applied. This article aims to place these expectations in a human context to show that in fact for every case, it is more a matter of human supremacy than supremacy of the technology being developed.

Available at SSRN: http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3477397