Reflecting on the first Quantum Industry Day

08.06.2024

We were at the first Quantum Industry Day in Copenhagen on the 3rd of June, and it gave us a good insight into the scene. The insight is not about what the companies or spin-offs were developing – we didn’t expect anything robust and sustainable ready for the industry, because of the lack of experience to develop and work on industrial scale over decades – we gained a different kind of clarity. There is too much going wrong, too little engagement from industry side, leaving the development to university staff and students, which suits academical curiosity and delivers some additional income thanks to spin-offs, but it is a disaster in terms of national security and development of the industrial sector, and also too costly financially.

 

Labelling quantum technology, quantum computing, quantum networks, quantum sensors and quantum information as mind boggling and hard to comprehend is neither helpful to swiftly develop the technology, nor is it true. Depending on the field of engagement, different degrees of knowledge of quantum mechanics are helpful, sometimes also necessary, for example when building a quantum computer. But even when building quantum computers, the entire complexity of quantum mechanics is not applied and not necessary to be applied. In many fields, such as developing quantum sensors or quantum networks, only a fraction of the complex theory of quantum mechanics is needed. Statements like mind boggling and hard to grasp only assure that deciders in economy and industry might feel intimidated to understand quantum technologies and their impact on business, engineering, our societies and more. Instead of an early and intensive proactive engagement by the industrial sphere, the most capable organizers stay away from the technology because of mislabelling. Please consider, that the time of most top deciders is extremely precious and propagating repetitively the narrative of mind bending quantum realm disengages the early direct involvement of the top leaders in the industrial and financial world, which is extremely harmful. If those experience and often brilliantly leading and delegating top directors, managers and deciders believe that the time is too early to engage and there are complex and time consuming obstacles in comprehending the workings and benefits of quantum technology, which is handled mostly in some labs in early stages of experiments and therefore not worth the time and attention, we deprive ourselves of the most capable leaders of the industrial nations. The description of quantum technology as counter intuitive and beyond the scope of non physicists leads to the fatal exclusion of the most needed resources our modern societies have to offer. Excluding the leaders and experts of our advanced societies, who have decades of experience in coordinating countless specialists such as scientists, engineers, and mathematicians, hampers the development of economically viable and industrially robust and tailored quantum technologies. Without integrating these technologies across nearly every economic and industrial sector, even the most advanced industrial nations will soon face a decline.

 

Quantum technologies are not a niche market or a nice product or a niche tool, they are the next universal tool and therefore central for every kind of development. Quantum computing combined with AI will boost the progress in realizing fusion reactors, will deliver higher efficient solar panels and wind generators, will help to identify the causes of many serious diseases and its cures, will reduce the impact of global warming in multiple ways – by adaptation of plants and live-stock, by the way of farming, by improving water management etc – quantum computing will improve transport and logistic, also autonomous driving, deliver new ship types, container ships with 30 percent of fuel consumption, new communication and education ways, and thousands of more improvements. Therefore, right now, quantum technology must catch the attention and engagement of the entire industrial landscape and financial world. Quantum technologies are something natural as our nature is based on the quantum realm.

 

Once again, quantum technologies, especially when combined with artificial intelligence, will deliver new technologies and better industrial designs, more efficient products, creating engineering solutions unthinkable today, and the countries or industries not having developed robust and sustainable, high performing and economical quantum technologies won’t even be able to re-engineer or to copy the solutions of AI powered quantum clusters of more progressive countries. From a leading industrial nation to a third world country within a generation – that’s what is at risk. Therefore, please change the narrative, communicate first the necessity, the benefits, the urgency to join forces and to cooperate by leaving the leadership to the experienced industrial leaders with their sophisticated and economical approach of getting things done as early as possible from the start in the needed format of quality, quantity and scalability of the industry.

Why is it important to understand that quantum technologies are not that hard to grasp and not that hard to develop? Because the way quantum technologies are currently developed is highly inefficient. Would anyone leave the development of any other industrially important technology in the hands of people working at the universities or their spin-offs, to people not familiar with industrial standards, such as scalability, robustness, maintenance? There is a certain amount of cooperation between industry and universities, technical universities and similar institutions, but the main initiative, the main drive, the decisions, the money and everything else must come from the industry and should only be sweetened carefully by state given support.


I have seen the deciders in industry being highly interested in quantum technologies and I have heard that the military took a great interest, too, but too quickly that interest turned into disappointment. On one hand, despite being in the early stages of lab experiments, professors have communicated in a way that those two interest groups believed that things are ready for the market respectively for deployment, on the other hand, the nimbus of it is hard to grasp hinders the deciders to have a continuous and productive conversation – backed up by considerable investments – and solely by staying in close conversation the understanding and creating of opportunities only quantum technologies will deliver can be realized.

 

My intention is not to criticize the professors, doctors, and other researchers at universities, my intention is to improve effectiveness. The current way of organizing the development of quantum technologies makes us fall behind the world leaders, and every week this gap is growing bigger. University staff is not capable of running a spin-off beyond lab size, especially not developing a new and complex technology and fulfilling industrial requirements. By integrating the top leaders of the industry earliest into the development of quantum technologies certainly those criteria will be fulfilled and thereby time and money saved, reliability and robustness improved, and scalability ensured. Hence the current promotion of mind boggling and incomprehensible technology is extremely harmful and counter-productive.

 

Some of our team members have roughly 30 years experience in the industry and in meeting its high standards and demands in research and development, in designing and maintenance of new products and technologies as well as in scalability, reliability and cost effectiveness. Therefore, visiting the exhibition at the quantum industry day verified our previous assumptions, that without the active involvement of the industrial complex as soon as possible, the waste of resources, such as time and money, will continue, and the bright and brilliant minds of the university staff is on one hand wasted on tasks, and on learning tasks, totally out of their field. Instead of focussing fully on their field of expertise, applied quantum mechanics, those scientists are losing precious time by learning by trial and error, instead of being guided,the specifics of industrial scale up and requirements. By close exchange with the fireproofed experts in the industry those losses can be avoided. Even the spin-offs won’t help to integrate the robustness, the flexibility and the economical requirements of the industrial realm into the development of quantum technologies in their early stages, because without decades of practice and optimization of industrial processes nobody can succeed in bringing forward such complex technology.

 

Therefore, the exhibition made clear that already 1/3 of the projects are already outdated, obsolete, by the rapid development in quantum technologies, mainly in China. It is not our custom to point at those obsolete spin-offs, but it is sad to see that all the hard work of those teams and all the provided money lead to a dead-end. In fundamental research such failing is acceptable, and even when proven an approach is impossible, the compensation of the team members are academic honours and titles. But the political situation and polarization of democracies versus autocracies enforces the economical, sustainable, swift and efficient development and realization of quantum technologies in every kind of field to protect our way of living.

The separation of power, once a virtue of democracies, has mutated to an insurmountable clutter of administration, rendering our once efficient academical and industrial infrastructure ineffective. With a measured growth between 10 to 20 percent, administration processes are the most constant and most rapidly growing entities of democratic societies. Therefore, we can’t keep up with autocracies in many aspects. With the ongoing war in Ukraine in mind and the BRICS states opposing us economically, I would like to see politicians for once keeping their promises of dialling down bureaucracy. The Western countries as well as Japan are falling in their standard and future perspectives, which endangers the survival of our democracies, and it fuels the political extreme spectrum. We are losing swiftly our wealth, our innovative leadership, which will lead to the demise of our liberties and democracies.

 

If you believe that I have forgotten this is about the quantum industry day, then I am answering, of course I am writing exactly about the insights of this important event as it has shown clearly what goes wrong, where it will lead to, but also the importance of the technology and the broad interest – after all 500 guests visited the highly specialized event, underlining thereby the importance of quantum technologies.

 

Due to passiveness of the financial, military and industrial complex, neither the USA nor any country in Europe is leading in quantum technology. World leader is China. I would not mind that China is leading, but under the current president, Xi Jinping, and his aggressive and expansive politics not only in the pacific region, but worldwide, and with his renewed pledge to support Russia as long as it takes and whatever it takes, we should not fall behind, because it creates a never before experience threat to our cyber and real world security. More details about the scenario in one of the next publications.


Despite the US bans towards China and the silent siding of the EU, China is leading in the broad field of quantum technologies, first of all in quantum networks, but also in quantum computing. Despite the political frictions the Chinese shared their insights and accomplishments in quantum technologies partially with the world. Sadly, due to the still worsening political climate and unnecessarily close following of the USA in their policies against China, a close cooperation with Chinese universities and companies is currently, and maybe for a longer time, impossible.

 

I fully agree that Europe must develop its own IT, its own solutions, but instead Europe remains reliant on US products, which have no or very low cyber security features. Also the believe in the abilities in the US agencies, such as NSA, FBI, CIA and so on, remains high among European officials despite contrary events not only in recent time. Please check the reality, read over a large spectrum of reliable news outlets. All those agencies have an impressive history of failing – sadly Richard Feynman is not around any more as he would kindly and in broad and deep perspective elucidate the public. Although not even near of any of Feynman’s amazing features, I am taking the task of elaborating and informing publicly about the wider scope of quantum technologies and politics.

 

Let’s go back to investigation and uncovering. If anything in cyber crime is uncovered, then not by any of those agencies commonly, which are bureaucratic monsters, absolutely inefficient and mostly useless, especially when considering the cost and the power they are wielding, not to mention their weird and destructive priorities and policies, tolerating or supporting organized crime to achieve their agendas. The latest and largest botnet was uncovered recently by an investigative journalist and not by any top funded agencies, typically. Be aware, 19 million infected Windows computers should make clear to the slowest in comprehending that US products and US software does not offer any cyber security- once again I am demanding strongly purely European products and solutions, but what is all the agitation around Chinese products? US products are immature by offering playful gadgets however lacking robust security. Not convinced? Homeland security sued Microsoft for neglecting cyber security. But it is not only Microsoft, of course, the list of vulnerable US software is vast and worth an article of itself.

 

Additionally, for more than 20 years it is possible to study hacking US operating systems and US software in China. Still, one silly advertisement from Microsoft and all of Europe’s deciders cling to the most vulnerable, the most dangerous operating system in the world. So believe me when I am writing that I am aware of the necessity to have European solutions and to be aware of cyber threats from China. But, China is leading in quantum computing and other quantum technologies, by far, and every months their lead is growing. Why not to consider the self interests of Europe, which I was fortunate to discuss with French colleagues, as their question was and is, what is Europe’s role and position in the clash of USA versus China? Not to have a vivid and educated discussion about it is fatal and also compromises Europe’s (cyber) security.

 

Don’t worry, we are still in quantum technologies, in fact quantum technology is the epicenter, is the alpha and omega of safety and security, of peace and stability, of attack and defence in military terms, and I am contemplating and writing about the gained insights thanks to the attended Quantum Industry Day in Copenhagen. Until that event I was certain that most of the impact and its importance was comprehensible for a broad group of people in all kind of fields. Let me share more of the scope and impact of quantum technologies, because if not a large number of people in our society is getting it right, we will lose our democracies, facing a war impossible to win, and we will lose our liberties and way of living.

 

For one full year China waited for the EU to find its own position in terms of relationship with China, and the disappointment in China was great to find that European governments are simply the puppets of the US government. Clearly, US policies are not at their best, and not only since Trump made president. Europe’s well-being was not paramount to the USA for decades, and why should it? By siding blindly, and against Europe’s interests, versus China, the Chinese government was finally forced to renew their until then purely verbal pledge towards Russia of unlimited support, now followed by actions. This destructive and dangerous union was forged by the ignorance and incompetence of European politicians incapable of finding a way to assure China that we are not their enemies, but that we will not tolerate attacks on our safety or sacrificing the existence and security of our democratic countries. This incompetency has brought us closer to WWIII than anything else, and the advantage is solely on Chinese side due to their lead in quantum technologies as this is the key in winning the war, which we will we make soon public in a risk assessment.

 

Back to the first Quantum Industry Day in Copenhagen and its meaning. The event was an initial invitation for the industry to join the community of quantum technology development. In classic fields, such as engineering, and in modern fields, such as artificial intelligence, the industrial complex is heavily engaged in vivid and meaningful dialogues and contributing considerably to each ecosystem in every field. The same lively dialogue I would like to see in quantum technologies. Economy and industry must be included and engaged, and most of all, they must lead the way. Quantum technologies is more than cyber security, more than breaking encryption, more than securing connections. Quantum technologies is the fundament to remain an industrial nation or to be downgraded by history. Think of ancient Egypt and the pyramids, of the Greek society, of the Roman empire, of the great and innovative Persia – nothing last forever, only change is a constant.
Quantum technologies will change our world and societies as strongly as the first industrial revolution did – and maybe even more. However, without the input, without the commitment, without the expertise of the industrial realm, we will fall further and further behind China and other countries, where the elemental forces of business and society are involved from the early stages of quantum technologies.

A warm and honest thank you to the organizers and speakers at the Quantum Industry Day for making us aware that the industry does not realize the impact of quantum technologies. In following articles we will try to elucidate the scope and impact of quantum technologies.

 

Another important insight was gained by listening the statement that quantum security will put an end to cyber attacks. Though a quantum network is impenetrable, this does not automatically translate to the end of all hacks and to safety of the entire IT structure, or at least to the absolute protection of the critical infrastructure. Especially the overconfidence to shield against all kinds of – AI enhanced – quantum hacks and hybrid attacks was worrisome. It is not that easy to achieve a high level of cyber security, especially not in a world of more sophisticated cyber attacks and state supported cyber terrorism, not to mention the increasing cyber war. Though quantum resilient encryption and quantum key distribution and quantum networks are powerful tools to combat and limit cyber attacks, they are not some kind of unbreakable magic spell. Seeing the hundreds of ongoing successful hacks against crucial infrastructure, what makes you believe that your quantum technologies will put an end to it? Again, you might have good ideas for the lab, but that does not suffice in the real world, in the vastness of the worldwide web. I wish it would be that easy, but most of those involved in quantum technologies lack the knowledge and experience of continent spanning complex networks. Cyber security begins and ends with networks and not with quantum key distribution or simplistic quantum networks.

 

The last enlightening part to see was the lab stages of the current quantum technologies, which are mostly neither economical for scale up, nor robust for commercial/industrial applications. I am aware that we are still in the early stages of pioneering, and that’s why it is obligatory that all branches of the industry and the entire financial sector have to join the development of quantum technologies.

 

Why do we have such an insight with great certainty? Because we fully developed two quantum technology products ready for the market: a robust, complex, dedicated and large scale quantum network and a post quantum resilient b2b communication and collaboration solution. Our background is different, we are not coming from a tiny university lab, but from a vast scale industrial cyber infrastructure spanning over the continents of America, Europe, Asia and Africa. Without at least 20 years of deep knowledge in one of the largest networks in the world – its size is approximately 40 percent of the worldwide web – it is impossible to develop a robust and sustainable, economically affordable quantum network. When scaling up solutions to real world industrial size, networks must be organized and maintained differently than on lab scale or even on national size. Also the amount and severity of cyber attacks is on a totally different level, more sophisticated, more state supported respectively carried out not by state proxies, but by state agencies itself plus their proxies. In recent years we could detect an immense increase of complex, AI supported attacks by smarter bot nets and other means, combined with resources of super computers. But very recently we could observe a new attack pattern, probably based on quantum hacking, as its features don’t match with anything in the huge database of all known and experienced attacks on that continents spanning network.

 

The current believe and the groundless overconfidence of the majority of people engaged in quantum technologies that their countermeasures will put an end to hacking, including quantum hacking, is pure imagination and not based on the hard reality gained by 3 decades of hands on daily work in an enormous network. This naive and unjustified overconfidence paired with a looming cyber security threat in 2025/2026, more details will follow soon, leaves our crucial infrastructure vulnerable and defenceless, which will have a deep and destructive impact on our society and on other democratic societies. Sadly this article is already too long to share more details, but I am hoping that by sharing my insights and reflections about the first ever Quantum Industry Day in Denmark will spark a necessary and qualified conversation, followed up by truly shielding countermeasures.