HSE Professor Discusses the ‘Quantum Leap’ at UNESCO Seminar
In mid-September 2026, UNESCO held an online seminar entitled ‘Quantum Science and the Future of Quantum Technologies.’ During a panel discussion, Alexander Sokolov, Director of the International Research and Educational Foresight Centre at the HSE Institute for Statistical Studies and Economics of Knowledge (ISSEK) and Chair of the UNESCO Chair on Future Studies at HSE University, presented the results of ISSEK’s Quantum Leap foresight study to international experts.
The seminar was held as part of the Futures Dialogues series and UNESCO’s Global Quantum Initiative, with the aim of raising public awareness of the prospects for quantum technology development and the risks it may entail. The discussion also addressed the issue of the quantum divide—the growing technological inequality between countries.
Presenting the findings of ISSEK’s foresight study to the expert community, Alexander Sokolov noted that the most significant social consequences of the quantum leap would emerge not at the stage of laboratory discoveries, but once quantum technologies reached ordinary users in the form of everyday devices, such as completely secure smartphones, watches with built-in mini-laboratories, and ‘eternal’ batteries.
The impact of quantum technologies on people and society will bring about a profound transformation in the nature and character of human interaction. Browsers and banking systems will change, the development of new medicines and materials will accelerate, and quantum sensors for navigation and medical imaging will emerge.
At the same time, long-term risks will become more acute. Any encrypted data intercepted today could become readable in 10–20 years. New categories will emerge within the legal system, including retrospective decryption and the legal status of encrypted archives. The question of whether records should be destroyed rather than transferred will also arise. At the level of public administration, countries will transition to new systems for citizen identification, tax and payment networks, military communications, and industrial control. According to the researcher, this transformation is not far off: the transition will be completed within 10–15 years.
In addition, value will be redistributed between sectors, while trust will become a scarce social, economic, and ethical resource.
The extent and consequences of the quantum divide will depend on what governments, scientists, and technology corporations funding quantum research can agree upon, the researcher emphasised.
As recommendations, the expert outlined several measures aimed at mitigating the consequences of quantum inequality. In particular, during the time remaining before the quantum leap, the relevant authorities should audit existing cryptographic systems, design solutions that allow algorithms to be replaced, and prioritise the protection of data that must remain confidential for extended periods.
In conclusion, Prof. Alexander Sokolov invited the experts attending the seminar to consider the following questions: how can a widening quantum divide be avoided amid growing tensions between globalist and sovereignty-based strategies? How can specialists be trained in competencies that do not yet exist? And what would an optimal policy for adopting post-quantum standards look like?
In addition to the Russian researcher, the seminar featured Malik Maaza of iThemba LABS (National Research Foundation of South Africa); Matthias C. Kettemann of the University of Innsbruck, Vice Chair of UNESCO’s World Commission on the Ethics of Scientific Knowledge and Technology (COMEST); and Reena Dayal, founder of the Quantum Ecosystems and Technology Council of India (QETCI).
HSE University’s UNESCO Chair on Future Studies is a member of both the Russian Network of UNESCO Chairs and the UNESCO Global Network of Chairs in Future Studies.
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