Powering the Future

Nobel Prize-winning physicist Robert Laughlin examines how we will power our society once fossil fuels are gone. In "Powering the Future", Laughlin transports us two centuries into the future, when we've ceased to use carbon from the ground, and pointedly asks: What has happened? Whether humans have banned carbon-burning or fuel has simply ran out, Laughlin boldly predicts that nothing earth-shattering will have taken place. Nothing at all. Six generations from now there will still be soccer moms, shopping malls, and too many business trips. People will still drive cars and ride in airplanes. Firesides will still be snug and warm. In considering the end of fossil fuel, Laughlin foresees the birth of a conventional synthetic fuel industry. Present-day oil companies already have the catalytic synthesis technologies capable of converting any carbon-containing substance-coal, trash, trees-into conventional fuels. Meanwhile, energy from the sun and wind is likely to be cheaper than energy made from biomass. However, long-term storage facilities must be built for this power to last. If countries don't build them, they will go nuclear out of necessity, whether they like it or not.
Since nuclear energy won't disappear, the price of electricity will drop, even as the price of transport fuel rises sky high. It might get warmer, but life will go on. As Laughlin sees it, the energy problem is simply a matter of engineering, of keeping the lights on when the gas begins to run out. The remaining cards will fall as they may. The energy choices people must make are now becoming clear, and Laughlin gives us the honest truth when it comes to moving forward. "Powering the Future" is an objective yet optimistic tour through alternative fuel sources, set in a world where we've burned every last drop of petroleum and every last shovelful of coal.