Quantum technologies use quantum effects to provide some utility. These capabilities are so different from our conventional intuition that quantum technologies seem to ride the fine border between science fiction and fantasy—yet many quantum technologies can be commercially purchased today, and more are just around the corner.
With Simson Garfinkel, I recently completed Law and Technology for the Quantum Age (Cambridge University Press 2022). This book decomposes quantum technologies into quantum sensing, computing, and communications. It critically evaluates the trajectories of each of these technologies and predicts, using scenario analysis, the strategic effects of each. We come to some surprising conclusions: that quantum sensing is the “killer app” in the field; that quantum computing is not only overhyped, it is more likely than not that we are entering a “quantum computing winter;” and that a more promising (and more dangerous) technology exists in the shadows of quantum computer: quantum simulation.
Representative publications:
- Simson L. Garfinkel and Chris J. Hoofnagle, ACM TechBrief: Quantum Computing and Simulation, in: ACM TechBriefs (2022).
- Chris Jay Hoofnagle and Simson L Garfinkel, Quantum Sensors—Unlike Quantum Computers—Are Already Here, in: DefenseOne (June 2022).
- Chris Jay Hoofnagle and Simson L Garfinkel. Quantum Cryptanalysis: Hype and Reality, in: Lawfare: Hard National Security Choices (Feb. 2022).
- Chris Jay Hoofnagle and Simson L Garfinkel, What if quantum computing is a bust?, in: Slate Future Tense (Jan. 2022).
Now available in audiobook from Audible