2025/07/17 by Miriam Meckel, Meckel, Miriam, Philipp Hacker +11
Social Sciences · #Computers and Society (cs.CY) #FOS: Computer and information sciences #Innovation, Sustainability, Human-Machine Systems
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2507.12957
openalex publication_date 2025/07/17 · openalex created_date 2025/10/18 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Emerging technologies challenge conventional governance approaches, especially when uncertainty is not a temporary obstacle but a foundational feature as in quantum computing. This paper reframes uncertainty from a governance liability to a generative force, using the paradigms of quantum mechanics to propose adaptive, probabilistic frameworks for responsible innovation. We identify three interdependent layers of uncertainty--physical, technical, and societal--central to the evolution of quantum technologies. The proposed Quantum Risk Simulator (QRS) serves as a conceptual example, an imaginative blueprint rather than a prescriptive tool, meant to illustrate how probabilistic reasoning could guide dynamic, uncertainty-based governance. By foregrounding epistemic and ontological ambiguity, and drawing analogies from cognitive neuroscience and predictive processing, we suggest a new model of governance aligned with the probabilistic essence of quantum systems. This model, we argue, is especially promising for the European Union as a third way between laissez-faire innovation and state-led control, offering a flexible yet responsible pathway for regulating quantum and other frontier technologies.