ETHICS-2025 Session G4 - Workshop: From Schrödinger's Box to Global Fairness: Ethical Dilemmas in Quantum Computing: ETHICS-2025 Special Session, Sunday, June 8 2025, 2:45 - 4:15 PM CDT.

In the near future, quantum computing may fundamentally reshape our world: problems that once took years to solve could be unraveled in seconds. Yet quantum computing time remains an extremely limited and costly resource, controlled by a few powerful tech corporations. This workshop addresses a central ethical question: who should have access to this resource—and on what moral grounds? At the heart of the discussion lies the idea that computing time represents an epistemic good, and its fair distribution may become one of the defining justice challenges of our era. Drawing on five different perspectives—from medical research and climate modeling to cybersecurity and innovation in the private sector to global poverty reduction—we explore how existential risks, individual interests, and the common good can be ethically reconciled. As a thought experiment and framework for our workshop, a fictional global ethics council is tasked with evaluating the competing demands, emphasizing the importance of ethical foresight in technological development. The goal of the workshop is to collaboratively define ethical principles for allocating quantum computing time—before the technology becomes entrenched and its impacts irreversible.