Negotiating a Quantum Computation Network: Mechanics, Machines, Mindsets
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Negotiating a Quantum Computation Network: Mechanics, Machines, Mindsets by Derek Noon A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Affairs in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Communication Carleton University Ottawa, Ontario © 2016, Derek Noon Abstract This dissertation describes the origins, development, and distribution of quantum computing from a socio-technical perspective. It depicts quantum computing as a result of the negotiations of heterogeneous actors using the concepts of ANT and socio-technical analyses of computing and infrastructure more generally. It draws on two years of participant observation and interviews with the hardware and software companies that developed, sold, and distributed both machines and a mindset for a new approach to computing: adiabatic quantum computation (AQC). It illustrates how a novel form of computation and software writing was developed by challenging and recoding the usual distinctions between digital and analogue computing, and discusses how the myriad controversies and failures attending quantum computing were resolved provisionally through a series of human and non-human negotiations. These negotiations disrupted, scrambled, and reconstituted what we usually understand as hardware, software, and mindset, and permitted a ‗disruptive‘ technology to gain common acceptance in several high profile scientific, governmental, and financial institutions. It is the relationalities established across these diverse processes that constitute quantum computing, and consequences of this account of computation are considered in the context of digital media theory, industrial histories of computing, and socio-technical theories of technological innovation. Noon ii Acknowledgements Many sources of support helped me through the PhD program. I‘m grateful to Mitacs for its financial support of this research, and for providing me such good STEM peers/research subjects. This project could not have taken the shape it did without the help and participation from the many people at 1QBit, who let me into their space and brains, gracefully answering endless questions. Thank you especially to Andrew Fursman, for giving me the opportunity to spend time in such a fascinating research location. Many Carleton faculty members have given me opportunities to research, lecture, and teach, while providing the encouragement that helped fuel this work. My early theoretical framework benefitted from the guidance of Dr. Melissa Aronczyk who supervised my comprehensive exam and helped me reflect on my writing and research goals. Dr. John Shiga gave great advice for approaching Actor-Network Theory from a media studies perspective and where to begin reading. Dr. Sandra Robinson has been a great example of how to write about highly technical subjects and her support through the last mile of this dissertation is deeply appreciated. Noon iii I am very grateful to my committee for participating in this project. Thanks you Dr. Carols Novas for taking an interest in my work and supporting its development. Dr. Brian Greenspan and Dr. Bart Simon were invigorating external examiners who have each given me a great deal to consider for future directions in my research. Dr. Sheryl Hamilton‘s questions/comments always manage to get right to the core of a subject, and have helped me appreciate how to give better feedback myself. Her support throughout each step of the program and dissertation has been invaluable. I want to sincerely thank Dr. Chris Russill for supporting this dissertation since its earliest stages. It made a massive difference to have a mentor so engaged in the questions and ideas at play in my research, able to understand what my clumsy first drafts were getting at, and who encouraged me to showcase my work. His dealing with the administration of this research has also been significant and deserving of praise. I was lucky to be grouped with a great cohort of PhDs and MAs that made the program‘s courses and comprehensive exams enjoyable challenges, too many to mention. Thanks are particularly owed to Bill for his advice and example, Laura for ongoing encouragement/threats, and Kolar for her insight into sociology and presence during the difficult middle years of this project. Noon iv Thank you to my family for their support, and for trying not to ask when I will be done too often. Thank you especially to Sonja, for her patience listening to me ramble about quantum nonsense, her proofreading skills, and most of all her company. Lastly, thanks to all the nonhumans who made this project possible. Noon v Table of Contents Abstract ............................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements ............................................................................................ ii Table of Contents .............................................................................................. vi List of Illustrations ............................................................................................. x List of Appendices ............................................................................................ xi 1 Chapter: Determining the Quantum State: Opening Negotiations for Research, Innovation, and Profit ..................................................................... 12 1.1 Description Tactics .................................................................................................... 15 1.2 Disrupting Narratives of Disruption ......................................................................... 18 1.3 Betting on Architectures ............................................................................................ 21 1.4 Industry Research ...................................................................................................... 25 1.5 Commercializing Quantum Computing ....................................................................... 26 1.5 Chapter Roadmap ..................................................................................................... 29 2 Chapter: Socio-technical Approaches to Technology and Computation 33 2.1 Networks and the Nonhuman .................................................................................. 36 2.1.1 Nonhuman .............................................................................................................. 37 2.1.2 Negotiation ............................................................................................................. 39 2.1.3 Messy Networks .................................................................................................... 42 2.2 ANT and Critical Computation ................................................................................. 46 2.3 Critiquing Actor-Networks ......................................................................................... 51 2.4 Socio-technical Infrastructure .................................................................................. 54 2.5 The Computer............................................................................................................. 58 2.5.1 History ..................................................................................................................... 60 Noon vi 2.5.2 Media Theory ......................................................................................................... 65 2.6 Literatures to Methods .............................................................................................. 70 3 Chapter: Expanding Translation as a Method for Techno-Messes ......... 71 3.1 Translation Devices and Distributions .................................................................... 71 3.1.1 From Language to Order ...................................................................................... 74 3.1.2 Unfolding Nonhumans .......................................................................................... 79 3.1.3 Following to Durability ........................................................................................... 82 3.2 Developing a Critical Cartography .......................................................................... 86 3.2.1 Observing Controversy ......................................................................................... 87 3.2.2 Layers of Translation ............................................................................................ 89 3.3 Methods and Practice ............................................................................................... 90 3.3.1 Research Subjects ................................................................................................ 91 3.3.2 Selection Criteria ................................................................................................. 110 4 Chapter: Gathering Distinctions for the Production of Qubits .............. 114 4.1 The Transistors‘ War ............................................................................................... 116 4.2 Quantum Bits ............................................................................................................ 122 4.3 0 and 1 ....................................................................................................................... 126 4.4 Peaks and Valleys ................................................................................................... 132 4.5 Logic to Energy .......................................................................................................