Life in the  QuantumOptics Age

The quantum universe is the place we all find ourselves living and experiencing life.  This is ‘true’ whether any given individual life form acknowledges it or not.  This ‘truth’ is based on a consensus of many people that have studied, experimented, and published their findings across many years, locations, ideologies, religions, cultures, and any other set of diverse categories we might consider.  Our current modern civilization exists because a subset of people have embraced the quantum theories and implemented them into our societies worldwide in the form of technologies including computers, communications, transportation, logistics, healthcare, financial transactions and many more processes that make up our human centric world.

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Throughout recorded history humans have asked questions and put forward some answers about where we came from, how the universe was created, and what rules govern its ongoing evolution.  Some of the early answers have been passed down verbally through the generations and then recorded on various media including stone, parchment, paper and most recently digitally in any number of methods like magnetic tape, computer disks, computer chips, microfilms, holographic media and many other forms.  The content of these answers has many similarities and many differences.  The goal of this paper is not to review the various questions and answers regarding the universe and our place in the universe; but to review the trends of technological progress over the years and to point out some possible futures for the readers to consider with respect to the current trajectory of the quantum ecosystem developing globally, in the space around our earth, into our extended solar system and beyond.