1. From Despotism to Liberal Democracy

During the Enlightenment in the 17th and 18th centuries, a number of philosophers and political theorists such as Locke, Hobbes, Voltaire, and Rousseau published treatises that questioned the legitimacy of existing autocratic monarchies. Although each thinker addressed different facets of the systems, the new idea at hand was that a government must be formed at the “consent of the governed” (i.e., with a social contract between the citizenry and statesmen that, if violated, renders the government illegitimate). Never since the time of the Classical Greeks and Romans was the idea of “government” thought to constitute a mutual relationship that included the masses; it was always regarded as the means of instilling order upon hoi polloi. In particular, Locke asserted that all men were endowed with certain “inalienable rights from the Creator,” a notion at odds with the long-standing idea of a despot granted the “divine right” to rule his constituents.

Recognizing the social contracts violated by their own governments, people all over the world began to take up arms against their ruling classes to convey their illegitimacy and establish new systems based on Roman republicanism and Athenian democracy. It is no surprise that the language of the Declaration of Independence almost exactly parallels that of Locke in his Two Treatises of Government. More than anything, the shift from despotism to liberal democracy resulted from the increasing value placed on the individual, placed in light of the the recent Renaissance and Scientific Revolution that displayed individual achievement and intellect as the means of advancing society. Autocracies established solely to instill order rather than promote liberty became regarded as impediments on human progress, impediments that needed to be corrected.

2. From Relativistic to Quantum

Arguably, such a shift is ongoing due in part to the renown of Albert Einstein and the simply mind-boggling nature of quantum mechanics. However, experimentation continues to confirm the veracity of “spooky action at a distance,” particularly the idea of instantaneous (i.e., faster than light) transmission of information via entanglement. The shift is accompanied by the gradual transition from classical computing (using mere binary electrical signals) to quantum computing (using superposition qubits, only 100 of which could constitute more computing power than the most advanced current supercomputers, which themselves incorporate quintillions of ordinary bits and require entire buildings to house.

As a result of such a potential application, humans would strive to alter their notions of physical reality not due to the quasi-paradoxical evidence compiled in the laboratory, but due to the prospect of having all of their computing needs met instantly. With Moore’s Law all but due to expire, capping the computing efficiency of traditional integrated circuits, companies and the public at large will be relying on the new computing paradigm to accommodate an ever growing world.