Letter to the Editor: Chicago Is Becoming Quantum City

Drew Wade
5 days ago
3 min read

To the Editors:

Chicago has worn many proud names—The Windy City, City of Broad Shoulders, birthplace of the skyscraper, home of deep-dish pizza and the Chicago-style hot dog (where mustard is the rightful and only liquid condiment), and one of the few places on Earth that still unapologetically calls soda “pop.”

Soon, I believe the world will know us by a new title:

Quantum City.

Yesterday, the Chicago Quantum Summit concluded inside the Willis Tower at 233 S. Wacker Dr., on the 2nd floor at Convene—another marker in Chicago’s rise as the epicenter of the quantum economy. The event was sold out, and I had originally resigned myself to attending virtually only. Yet an inner voice told me: go anyway.

I listened.

And only then did I understand why. I met people I believe I was meant to meet—connections that felt like quantum entanglement: once paths link, motion in one changes the other. The science is still emerging, and so is the understanding of what that means for human connection. But its power was unmistakable.

Chicago is not preparing for the quantum future — it is building it.

For eighty years, our digital world has been constrained by two states: zero and one. Binary logic built our civilization—finance, medicine, transportation, communication, security, entertainment, all of it. Even the coming era of qubits, with their remarkable superposition abilities, extends from this two-digit foundation.

But the frontier beyond qubits is qudits—quantum digits capable of infinite states.

Binary gave us the modern world.

Infinite states will give us the world we dream of.

That leap—from two to infinity—is why the world’s first novel to spotlight Chicago’s Illinois Quantum & Microelectronics Park (IQMP) as a central setting, Great Awakening (https://a.co/d/9zWy2gL), begins not in a galaxy far away, but here in Chicago, now. It unfolds like Star Wars—yet it starts on Earth, in our neighborhoods, labs, libraries, churches, and classrooms.

In that story, quantum tech becomes everyday life.

Climate change is solved.

Cancer is history.

And progress is powered by teachers, doctors, nurses, scientists, engineers, artists, farmers, builders, caregivers, and dreamers—guided by the Golden Rule toward a future that feels like paradise.

A civic future: universally-owned Quantum City™

Chicago’s new identity should not merely be spoken — it should be owned by the people.

I propose tokenizing the Quantum City™ brand so it becomes a universally held civic asset, tied to a GENIUS Act–compliant stablecoin. A Chicago-minted digital token that residents and visitors can use for real-world experiences — and that symbolizes equitable participation in the quantum economy.

Imagine every first-time international traveler receiving a Quantum City token upon arrival — a welcome from a city that knows it is shaping the future. They could redeem it for:

Their first bite of a classic Chicago dog
A slice of deep-dish pizza
A pop
Or even a guided cultural-historical tour led by the spirit and storytelling of Emmy-winning historian Shermann “6 Figga Dilla” Thomas, learning why “Everything Dope About America Comes from Chicago”

Tourism meets fintech meets civic pride.

Blockchain meets belonging.

A city welcomes the world by giving them a piece of itself.

That is branding in the deepest sense — and visionaries like Diane Primo have long understood how identity, capital, community, and culture converge.

Chicago will always be the Windy City.

But we are already becomingQuantum City— the world simply hasn’t caught up yet.

I wasn't planning to be there. But I was.

I wasn't planning to connect. But I did.

Call it intuition, serendipity — or quantum.

Now it’s time for all of us to build this future with intention, dignity, and shared ownership.

Sincerely,

Drew Wade

Born in DeKalb, Raised in Glen Ellyn, Lives in Chicago, Illinois 🇺🇸

❤️💚💙