Mauritz Kop Reviews Der Derian’s Project Q: War, Peace and Quantum Mechanics
Stanford University, April 1, 2024—In an era defined by rapid technological acceleration, the quantum revolution looms as perhaps the most profound and least understood transformation on the horizon. It is a domain where the esoteric principles of physics—superposition, entanglement, and uncertainty—are migrating from theoretical blackboards to the geopolitical chessboard. It is this critical, and often unsettling, intersection of science, society, and security that James Der Derian’s consequential new documentary, Project Q: War, Peace and Quantum Mechanics, masterfully explores. Having been graciously invited by the film’s producers at Bullfrog Films to review this important work as the Founding Director of the Stanford Center for Responsible Quantum Technology, Mauritz Kop found it to be an essential primer for what may well be the defining technological challenge of the 21st century.
The film serves as a crucial vehicle for fostering what Mauritz Kop calls ‘quantum literacy’—a foundational understanding of not just the science, but the societal, ethical, and political ramifications of quantum technologies, and their inherent dual-use nature. Der Derian, a distinguished scholar of international relations and director of the Centre for International Security Studies at the University of Sydney, is uniquely positioned to guide this inquiry. He eschews a purely technical exposition, instead weaving a narrative that brings together a diverse chorus of voices: leading physicists, philosophers, national security experts, artists, and historians. This multidisciplinary approach is the film’s greatest strength, transforming a subject that could easily be arcane and inaccessible into a deeply human and urgent conversation.
The iconic 1927 photograph from the Fifth Solvay Conference captures the intellectual titans of physics at a pivotal moment, crystallizing the intense debates between Albert Einstein and Niels Bohr over the bizarre, probabilistic nature of the newly formulated quantum mechanics. This historic gathering, featuring a majority of the theory's principal architects, represents the moment the strange and counter-intuitive Copenhagen interpretation began to gain dominance, fundamentally shifting the course of modern physics despite Einstein's profound objections.
A Summary of the Film: The Quantum Conundrum
Project Q dives headfirst into the rapidly advancing world of quantum science, highlighting the massive investments by governments, corporations, and universities while probing the unanswered questions about humankind's quantum future. The documentary skillfully unpacks the foundational elements of quantum mechanics for a lay audience. It introduces concepts like complementarity, Niels Bohr’s principle that objects can exhibit contradictory properties, such as being both a wave and a particle, but not simultaneously. It visualizes superposition through the famous Schrödinger's cat analogy, where a particle—or a cat in a box—can exist in multiple states at once until the moment it is observed.
This "measurement problem," the paradox that the act of observation collapses a quantum system from a state of potentiality into a single, definite state, becomes a powerful metaphor throughout the film. It suggests that our engagement with this technology—how we choose to look at it, develop it, and regulate it—will fundamentally shape its reality. The film also tackles entanglement, the "spooky action at a distance" that so troubled Einstein, where two particles become linked in such a way that their fates are intertwined, regardless of the distance separating them. This principle is not merely a scientific curiosity; it is the bedrock of quantum computing, communication, and cryptography.
By grounding these abstract ideas in concrete terms, Der Derian sets the stage for the film’s central investigation: the dual-use dilemma inherent in all powerful technologies. Quantum computing, with its potential to solve problems intractable for even the most powerful supercomputers, could revolutionize medicine, materials science, and climate change modeling. Quantum sensing could enable medical diagnostics of unprecedented precision. A quantum internet could provide unhackable communication. Yet, this utopian promise is shadowed by a dystopian peril. The same computational power that could design life-saving drugs could also break the encryption that underpins global finance and security. The same sensing technology could lead to new, undetectable forms of surveillance and warfare.
Project Q in Sydney: A Conclave for the Quantum Age
The documentary is inextricably linked to the real-world initiative from which it takes its name. Project Q, based at the University of Sydney, is an ambitious undertaking to bridge the gap between the scientists building the quantum future and the humanists, policymakers, and public who will inhabit it. A ‘quantum risk lab’'. The project’s home is the Q Station in Sydney, a former quarantine station with a history of isolating and managing existential threats. This setting serves as a poignant backdrop, a physical manifestation of the need to grapple with the potentially world-altering implications of quantum technology before they arrive unchecked.
The film chronicles the gathering of experts at Q Station, a process itself disrupted by the very kinds of global crises—the Australian bushfires and the COVID-19 pandemic—that quantum science might one day help solve. These real-world interruptions lend a palpable sense of urgency to the discussions. The dialogue is not merely academic; it is a desperate search for wisdom in the face of uncertainty. The central question that emerges is whether human society possesses the foresight and ethical maturity to manage this new power. As one expert notes, societal hype and fear around quantum technology are currently near zero, creating a dangerous vacuum between the speed of innovation and the pace of public and regulatory preparedness.
Der Derian’s Project Q: War, Peace, and Quantum Mechanics
Der Derian’s film masterfully frames the quantum revolution as a "tug of war between the powerful and the symbolic." On one side are the nation-states and corporations locked in a high-stakes quantum race, pouring billions into research and development, driven by the fear of being left behind. The pursuit of "quantum supremacy" is not just about scientific prestige; it is about securing a decisive economic and military advantage.
On the other side are the profound, almost spiritual, questions that quantum mechanics raises about the nature of reality, consciousness, and our place in the universe. The film touches on speculative ideas like the quantum brain theory, which posits that consciousness itself might be a macroscopic quantum phenomenon. It asks: if we create a powerful quantum computer, could it become conscious? This line of inquiry forces us to confront the possibility that consciousness is not an exclusively human property but a potential feature of matter itself.
This philosophical dimension is crucial. It elevates the conversation beyond a simple cost-benefit analysis of the technology. The film argues that the future is not a predetermined state waiting to be discovered, but a superposition of possibilities that will collapse into a single reality based on the choices we make today. One of the most haunting ideas presented is the "window of potential surprise"—the terrifying possibility that quantum computers could prove to be either the most transformative technology in human history or, as one interviewee bluntly puts it, "totally useless paperweights." The challenge, the film insists, is that we cannot afford to let that window of uncertainty exist. We must act to eliminate the most catastrophic possibilities before they materialize.
Mauritz Kop Reviews Der Derian’s Project Q: War, Peace and Quantum Mechanics. Authored principally by Leó Szilárd and signed by Albert Einstein, the 1939 letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt warned that recent work on nuclear fission in uranium made it probable that "extremely powerful bombs of a new type" could be constructed. This pivotal communication directly spurred the American government to action, ultimately leading to the establishment of the Manhattan Project and the subsequent development of atomic weapons.
A Must-Watch Call for Quantum Literacy
Project Q is a documentary of profound importance and timeliness. It is a wake-up call, an invitation to a global conversation that has been largely confined to laboratories and classified government briefings. Der Derian has crafted a film that is both intellectually rigorous and deeply accessible, challenging its audience to think critically about the path we are on. By exploring both the risks and benefits of quantum innovation, the film offers a vital multidisciplinary perspective on how this emerging suite of technologies might reshape global peace, security, and politics.
The film does not offer easy answers, because there are none. Instead, it leaves the viewer with a sense of profound responsibility. The quantum future is not something that will happen to us; it is something we will collectively create. The principles of quantum mechanics—uncertainty, observation, and entanglement—are not just for physicists anymore. They are metaphors for our time, reminding us that our future is uncertain, that our observation and choices matter, and that we are all, in the end, entangled in a shared destiny. Project Q is a must-watch for anyone interested in developing the quantum literacy necessary to participate in shaping that destiny.