Quantum Computing and Security Imaginaries

• In Event: Emerging Technologies and International Security

Abstract

Conventional discourse around quantum computing highlights how these technologies will reshape global security and unleash a new arms race between great power rivals. However, these technologically deterministic characterizations of quantum computing do not take into account the meso-level organizational understanding of how quantum computing contributes — if at all — to the security dilemma.

By conducting interviews with quantum computing physicists and developers in the private sector in the US and the UK, this paper comparatively explores how scientists and technologists conceptualize security and their role in it, and how this framing shapes broader security policy efforts and power competition between states. Our findings have implications for both thinking through the future use cases of quantum computing and how technological imaginaries shape threat construction in emerging technologies.

Authors

• Samantha Bradshaw, American University

• Gabrielle Lim, University of Toronto