Since its inception more than a century ago, quan-
tum science has embarked on an unsteady but inex-
orable journey from paradoxical possibility to one
of the most fecund scientific and technological
frontiers. While quantum theory has quietly set the
agenda for some of the toughest problems in theo-
retical physics, quantum science begins to pervade
our daily lives via technologies such as atomic
clocks and quantum brain imaging. The apparently
approaching advent of stable quantum computing
looks set to overturn digital security systems devel-
oped since everyday shopping and banking went
online, to say nothing of national security systems.
And yet awaiting such a quantum computer has no
small air of waiting for Godot.
This conference looks back at the past century of
quantum science, and its place in the popular imag-
ination; and it looks forward, as we stand apparently
on the brink of multiple application breakthroughs,
at how quantum science—with all its dangers and
possibilities—promises to affect the social world
and lived realities of everyone.