Since 2017, quantum information and technology science (QIS), and especially quantum computing, are quickly emerging as central in Hollywood and its movies, TV series and novels. Their scenarii emphasise the link between quantum power and national security situations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is a crucial indication, considering that the relation between the U.S. cultural industries and National security has been one of the main drivers of the U.S. strategic debate since World War II (Jean-Michel Valantin, Hollywood, the Pentagon and Washington: The Movies and National Security from World War II to the Present Day<\/a><\/em>, 2005).<\/p>\n\n\n\n That link organizes the structure of the U.S. strategic debate through the very complex and tangled relationships between the federal centres of political power in Washington D.C, the Department of Defence, the intelligence community and the media and cultural industry (Valantin, Ibid.). That is the reason why Hollywood movies, television and video games play a vital role in the U.S. strategic debate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n As a result, the Hollywood cultural industry is extremely reactive to any evolution of the national security apparatus. Thus, the themes present in movies and other cultural productions are highly likely to be very strong indications of crucial issues for the U.S. national security, including how the future is foreseen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Currently, we can see the heightening importance of quantum computing and more broadly QIS in Hollywood in a couple of instances. It is central in the mega-blockbuster \u201cMortal Engines\u201d, produced by Peter Jackson (2018). The same is true of the new \u201cStar Trek: Discovery season\u201d TV series (2017). The novel \u201cThe Quantum Spy\u201d, by David Ignatius (2018) is also a strong signal. Hollywood’s reactivity reveals the importance of quantum information science and technology in strategic terms. Reciprocally, it turns Hollywood into a driver for the development of the quantum potential.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As H\u00e9l\u00e8ne Lavoix brilliantly demonstrates, there is a race for quantum computing that drives its development (H\u00e9l\u00e8ne Lavoix, \u201cMapping the Race for Quantum Computing <\/a>\u201d, The Red (Team) Analysis Society<\/em>, 27 November 2018). This development is quickly going to have vast consequences in terms of defence and national security, even more so as this evolution translates in the culture industry. Indeed, the latter feeds the quantum race, through the production of quantum centred national security movies and TV series that create a cultural set of references, which becomes a driver of this race, including because it allows imagining the future, as explained in The Quantum Computing Battlefield and the Future \u2013 Quantum, AI and Geopolitics (2)<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\nQuantum Goes to Hollywood<\/h4>\n\n\n\n