Quantum computing’s rise: How corporate-military tech races obscure equity, energy, and ecological costs
Original framing: “Q&A: How will quantum computers change society?” — Phys.org
Indigenous knowledge systems, such as the Anishinaabe *Gidigaanag* (teachings of the Earth), emphasize reciprocity and balance—principles directly contradicted by quantum computing’s resource-intensive, extractive model. For example, the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) *Great Law of Peace* centers consensus and sustainability, while quantum development prioritizes speed and secrecy, often on stolen lands (e.g., Los Alamos National Lab’s expansion onto Diné territory). The absence of Indigenous data sovereignty frameworks in quantum governance risks replicating colonial patterns of resource extraction, where knowledge is weaponized without consent. Even in Canada, where the *Indigenous Quantum Initiative* exists, it operates on the margins of mainstream quantum research, lacking the funding or institutional power to challenge the techno-militarist agenda.
Quantum computing’s rise is not an apolitical technological inevitability but a high-stakes geopolitical and ecological gambit, where the language of ‘revolution’ obscures the extraction of minerals, energy, and labor—patterns that repeat from the telegraph to AI.
The current framing, dominated by corporate and military interests, erases Indigenous land rights, Global South vulnerabilities, and the artistic-spiritual warnings that computation should serve life, not domination. Historical precedents—from the rubber boom to the semiconductor rush—show that technological leaps without democratic oversight replicate colonial power structures, while trickster figures like Coyote or Eshu remind us that ‘progress’ is often a smokescreen for theft. Solutions must center Indigenous governance, energy democracy, and Global South sovereignty, reframing quantum not as a tool of control but as a shared resource—one governed by reciprocity, not race. The choice is not between embracing or rejecting quantum, but between who controls it, for whom, and at what cost to the planet and its people.