Quantum Documentary?

One question I’ve had for a long time is why there hasn’t been a good documentary produced about the field of quantum information science. There is certainly a feeling that quantum computing has leaked into the mainstream of geeks through various sci-fi stories, articles in Scientific American, and postings on Slashdot, and yet there hasn’t been a NOVA style documentary produced on the field in spite of the (I think) fascinating results which have emerged from the field in the last few decades (we’ve got to count quantum cryptography!)

6 Replies to “Quantum Documentary?”

  1. Inadequate visuals. The movies quantum experimentalists make tend not to be sufficiently exciting for an ignorant TV audience, and good animation is incredibly expensive. Probably only the biggest series like NOVA could afford to make their own rather than borrowing from someone else, and there’s no one to borrow quantum computing animations from. NOVA only did string theory after Brian Greene became a best-seller, and we don’t have any best-selling quantum computing books yet either.
    Also, it’s not really even clear what you want to show in the animations. Visualizing quantum mechanics is not particularly easy.

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