Join us for an online talk by Stefano Calzati (JRC Centre for Advanced Studies), co-author of Quantum Ecology (MIT Press, 2024). In this talk, Stefano will expound on philosophical concepts from the quantum realm and discuss the potential impact of quantum information technologies on European societies.
Title
Quantum Ecology: Innovative Policymaking and the Governance of Quantum Information Technologies
Abstract
In their book Quantum Ecology: Why and How New Information Technologies Will Reshape Societies (MIT Press, 2024, open access), Calzati and de Kerckhove identify three ecologies, each one gravitating around a set of technologies as dispositif: linguistic, digital, and quantum. Through an intra- and inter-ecological analysis inscribed along the axis connecting oral communication, writing systems, and data technologies (including AI), the authors outline a framework that helps better understand our (technologized) contemporaneity and navigate the impact of emerging quantum information technologies (QITs). Hence, the “quantum ecology” is conceptualised as both an onto-epistemological framework – telling us something about the nature of reality and what/how we can know – and a technological paradigm, pivoting around QITs – e.g., quantum computers, quantum sensing, quantum communication. This talk unpacks and expands both sides of the story, on the one hand, exploring how we can think through quantum philosophical tenets – especially, “uncertainty” and “entanglement” – to experiment with alternative ways of doing policy and, on the other hand, investigating the potential impact of QITs on the European society, and how to govern these technologies.
Stefano Calzati currently works at the Centre for Advanced Studies of the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission. His background spans from cultural and media studies to philosophy of technoscience, ethics of technology, and participatory tech governance. He has written five academic books and over 60 peer-reviewed articles. Beyond scholarly publications, he wrote a travelogue dedicated to Vietnam. Before academia, Calzati worked as a journalist and editor for the press and the radio, and he covered the 2008 US Presidential Elections in New York for ANSA, the main Italian News Agency.
When: Thursday, February 12, 2026, 12:30 -13:30 CET
Where: Webex. To register to the talk please send an email to JRC-Resonances@ec.europa.eu
Missed the talk? Here is a recording of the Quantum Ecology talk.
Check out other related publications by the author:
The Quantum Ecology as an Onto-Epistemological Framework: Toward an Ecological Theory of Sensing
A fourth way to the digital transformation: The data republic as a fair data ecosystem
Details
- Publication date