Quantum Storytime ⚛️ Bridging the Quantum Divide through meaningful storytelling
The Quantum Frontier - Google Quantum AI
While the conversation around quantum technology is gaining momentum, a fundamental challenge persists: a significant gap in understanding that hinders its smooth integration into society.
Bridging the quantum divide is on our minds more than ever today.
The UN recognizes this, declaring 2025 the International Year of Quantum Science & Technology (IYQ) with an explicit aim: to bridge this divide by promoting equitable access to quantum technologies and opportunities.
🔍 What exactly is the Quantum Divide?
It’s more than just a lack of public awareness. It’s about a growing chasm between the world of quantum technology and broader culture—a space where misunderstanding breeds mistrust.
At its core, the Quantum Divide is a cultural and cognitive disconnect:
Technologists and physicists speak a language rooted in math and abstract principles—entanglement, Hilbert spaces, quantum error correction. We call this ‘explainer mode’.
Most people, even in adjacent industries, hear “quantum” and think of science fiction, black boxes, or unrelatable complexity. There is a lack of meaning to connect to.
🧠 Why This Matters for Progress
When the existing narrative remains opaque and exclusive, it creates barriers to participation that no amount of technical progress can overcome.
Technological revolutions don’t happen in labs alone. They happen when a culture embraces them—when people understand, trust, and actively engage with the tools being developed. Without this cultural buy-in, even the most significant advancements can struggle to gain traction, hindering advocacy, slowing adoption, and limiting the influx of new talent into the field.
⚛️ Preventing the Quantum Divide : the Power of Trust and Meaning
Trust and Meaning are known to be key drivers for product adoption and brand advocacy.
The Edelman Trust Barometer consistently demonstrates that when people have a better understanding of a technology, trust in that technology is increased.
Therefore, as quantum computing becomes more prevalent, education and finding relevance is critical for its progress.
2022 Edelman Trust Barometer Special Report: Trust in Technology - Trust vs Adoption
Trust is the bedrock for resonance and meaning.
And both are essential for product adoption and brand advocacy.
👨💼 Humanizing the Narrative
While the potential benefits – from revolutionizing medicine to fortifying our digital defenses – are becoming clearer, the technology itself is stuck in explainer mode. This critical divide demands our attention if we want quantum to truly "land well" and deliver on its transformative promise.
A question we often get asked is how this can possibly work for quantum technology as it is so nascent, so unfamiliar and so unknown?
The answer lies in replacing abstract technical explanations with relatable, real-world metaphors and stories. It is possible!
Here’s just one of our favourite examples:
The Quantum Frontier: Even a basic understanding of Google Quantum AI’s mission is hard to grasp without careful framing. Here it’s a metaphor inspired by the pioneering spirit of the American west that helps illustrate the vast, unchartered terrain that Quantum Computing has yet to explore
The winners in Quantum will not only be those with the best technologies, but those who redefine and own the Quantum narrative.
At Across the Pond we specialise in finding new pathways between technical innovation and human meaning. And we are eager to see quantum technology reach its full potential.
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