Quantum Ecology Why and How New Information Technologies Will Reshape Societies

An exploration of the emerging quantum technological paradigm and its effects on human consciousness and cultures.

In Quantum Ecology, Stefano Calzati and Derrick de Kerckhove identify three technological ecologies—linguistic, digital, and quantum—to better understand today’s shattered globalized contemporaneity and navigate the impact of soon-to-come quantum information technologies. Today’s societies, based as they are on language and writing, face disruption brought on by digital transformation, which is not predicated on sharing meaning but on sheer computability. This produces what the authors call an “epistemological crisis.” From here, the book explores how emerging quantum computers and communication will trigger an even deeper existential shift based on quantum physics’ principles of discreteness, uncertainty, and entanglement.

Enriched with evidence from biology, anthropology, sociolinguistics, and information and cognitive sciences, the authors draw upon diverse case studies to sustain a convincing philosophical and political argument. The book’s chapters move from a discussion about the coevolution of humans and language to the codependence of writing, thinking, and innovation, then proceed to investigate “datacracy,” the power of algorithms. Finally, the authors outline the looming psychocultural effects and geopolitical challenges of the nascent quantum technological paradigm.

Stefano Calzati is currently a senior researcher at Delft University of Technology. Previously, he worked at Tallinn University of Technology and the City University of Hong Kong. He is the author of Mediating Travel Writing, Mediated China.
Derrick de Kerckhove is former Director of the McLuhan Program in Culture and Technology at the University of Toronto. He is the scientific director of the observatory TuttiMedia, and has authored several books, including The Skin of Culture and Connected Intelligence.