Science on Tap

A genre of science fiction is coming to life at the intersection of energy science, quantum physics, and information science. Steampunk literature and film juxtaposes futuristic technologies with Victorian settings. Automata, dirigibles, and time machines populate Sherlock Holmes's London; the American Wild, Wild West; and Meiji Japan. Outside of fiction, technology has advanced far beyond the steam engine to quantum computers, which will be able to solve certain problems far more quickly even than supercomputers can. Quantum computing has melded with energy science, which dates to the Victorian era, in an emerging field that I've dubbed quantum steampunk. Can quantum phenomena benefit engines as they benefit computation? How would a quantum engine, refrigerator, or battery look? What fundamental insights can we gain by scrutinizing time's arrow more and more minutely? I will discuss this real-world science fiction, covered in my book for the general public Quantum Steampunk: The Physics of Yesterday’s Tomorrow.