Functional Understanding Of Quantum Technology Is Essential To The Ethical Debate About Its Impact

• URL: http://arxiv.org/abs/2504.07702v1
• Date: Thu, 10 Apr 2025 12:38:45 GMT
• Title: Functional Understanding Of Quantum Technology Is Essential To The Ethical Debate About Its Impact
• Authors: Eline de Jong,
• Abstract summary: I argue that technological understanding is a foundational capacity for meaningful ethical reflection on emerging technology like quantum technologies.<n>I contend that ethical assessment, first and foremost, requires an understanding of what quantum technologies can do.
• Score: 0.0
• License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Abstract: As the innovative potential of quantum technologies comes into focus, so too does the urgent need to address their ethical implications. While many voices highlight the importance of ethical engagement, less attention has been paid to the conditions that make such engagement possible. In this article, I argue that technological understanding is a foundational capacity for meaningful ethical reflection on emerging technology like quantum technologies. Drawing on De Jong & De Haro's account of technological understanding (2025a; 2025b), I clarify what such understanding entails and how it enables ethical enquiry. I contend that ethical assessment, first and foremost, requires an understanding of what quantum technologies can do - their functional capacities and, by extension, their potential applications. Current efforts to build engagement capacities among broader audiences - within and beyond academic contexts - tend, however, to focus on explaining the underlying quantum mechanics. Instead, I advocate a shift from a physics-first to a functions-first approach: fostering an understanding of quantum technologies' capabilities as the basis for ethical reflection. Presenting technological understanding as an epistemic requirement for meaningful ethical engagement may appear to raise the bar for participation. However, by decoupling functional understanding from technical expertise, this condition becomes attainable for a broader group, contributing not only to a well-informed but also to a more inclusive ethical debate.

Related papers

• Ethics Readiness of Technology: The case for aligning ethical approaches with technological maturity [0.0]
  Ethics of emerging technologies faces an anticipation dilemma.<n> engaging too early risks overly speculative concerns.<n>No framework exists to assess their suitability across different stages of technological development.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2025-04-04T10:38:27Z)
• From Staging to Insight: An Educational Path to Understanding Bell's Inequalities [0.0]
  We discuss the rationale for introducing entanglement and Bell's inequalities to a non-expert audience as part of the Italian Quantum Weeks project. This initiative aims to make quantum mechanics accessible to all, bridging the gap between complex scientific principles and public understanding.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2025-02-25T13:30:26Z)
• Open Problems in Mechanistic Interpretability [61.44773053835185]
  Mechanistic interpretability aims to understand the computational mechanisms underlying neural networks' capabilities.<n>Despite recent progress toward these goals, there are many open problems in the field that require solutions.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2025-01-27T20:57:18Z)
• Technology as uncharted territory: Contextual integrity and the notion of AI as new ethical ground [55.2480439325792]
  I argue that efforts to promote responsible and ethical AI can inadvertently contribute to and seemingly legitimize this disregard for established contextual norms. I question the current narrow prioritization in AI ethics of moral innovation over moral preservation.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2024-12-06T15:36:13Z)
• The intricate path of energy conservation in Quantum Mechanics: exploring Coherent Population Return and laser-matter interaction [0.0]
  This manuscript explores how a seemingly straightforward inquiry, emerging from the widely accepted semiclassical description of laser-matter interaction, can pose a challenge to our comprehension of a fundamental principle in Physics. We have delved into fundamental concepts, thereby deepening our understanding of the aspects inherent to the formalism of Quantum Mechanics.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2024-02-22T10:55:11Z)
• Artificial Intelligence for Science in Quantum, Atomistic, and Continuum Systems [268.585904751315]
  New area of research known as AI for science (AI4Science)<n>Areas aim at understanding the physical world from subatomic (wavefunctions and electron density), atomic (molecules, proteins, materials, and interactions), to macro (fluids, climate, and subsurface) scales.<n>Key common challenge is how to capture physics first principles, especially symmetries, in natural systems by deep learning methods.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2023-07-17T12:14:14Z)
• Towards Quantum Federated Learning [80.1976558772771]
  Quantum Federated Learning aims to enhance privacy, security, and efficiency in the learning process. We aim to provide a comprehensive understanding of the principles, techniques, and emerging applications of QFL. As the field of QFL continues to progress, we can anticipate further breakthroughs and applications across various industries.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2023-06-16T15:40:21Z)
• Mind the Gap! Bridging Explainable Artificial Intelligence and Human Understanding with Luhmann's Functional Theory of Communication [5.742215677251865]
  We apply social systems theory to highlight challenges in explainable artificial intelligence. We aim to reinvigorate the technical research in the direction of interactive and iterative explainers.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2023-02-07T13:31:02Z)
• Quantum realism: axiomatization and quantification [77.34726150561087]
  We build an axiomatization for quantum realism -- a notion of realism compatible with quantum theory. We explicitly construct some classes of entropic quantifiers that are shown to satisfy almost all of the proposed axioms.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2021-10-10T18:08:42Z)
• Standard Model Physics and the Digital Quantum Revolution: Thoughts about the Interface [68.8204255655161]
  Advances in isolating, controlling and entangling quantum systems are transforming what was once a curious feature of quantum mechanics into a vehicle for disruptive scientific and technological progress. From the perspective of three domain science theorists, this article compiles thoughts about the interface on entanglement, complexity, and quantum simulation.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2021-07-10T06:12:06Z)
• Ethical Quantum Computing: A Roadmap [1.370633147306388]
  We situate quantum ethics at the cross-disciplinary intersection of quantum information science, technology ethics and moral philosophy. We provide examples of how the emergence of quantum technologies gives rise to normative and distributional ethical challenges.
  arXiv  Detail & Related papers  (2021-02-01T10:48:04Z)

This list is automatically generated from the titles and abstracts of the papers in this site.

This site does not guarantee the quality of this site (including all information) and is not responsible for any consequences.