As I mentioned in my introductory blog post, I have a deep fascination with cutting-edge technology—especially room-temperature superconductors. In this article, I want to return to the basics and explore the question: Why do we need room-temperature superconductivity? Everything here represents my personal perspective, and it may contain errors or one-sided views—thank you for your understanding.
Throughout history, humanity has gone through several revolutionary breakthroughs.
It began with the Old Stone Age, a time of primitive productivity where people used chipped stone tools. Men hunted, women cared for children, and tribes wandered in search of survival.
Later, humanity developed agriculture. We learned to grow crops and raise livestock using water and soil. With the emergence of polished stone tools, pottery, and other inventions, productivity improved significantly. Social classes began to form, and the Neolithic era officially began.
Between 3000 BCE and 1000 BCE, the discovery and smelting of bronze marked another major advancement. Bronze tools became widespread. But bronze was still a rare material—and forging it into tools required skilled craftsmen. Not everyone had access to such goods, which led to a “consumption upgrade” and a clearer division of social classes. Civilizations started to emerge, along with rulers and the ruled.
The next leap came with iron tools and the spread of religion.
But it wasn’t until the 16th century that humanity truly entered a new era. The Ottoman Empire blocked the land routes between Europe and Asia, forcing Europeans to explore sea routes and ultimately discover the Americas. The Dutch pioneered capitalism, transferring wealth from nobles to merchants. Those merchants, in turn, outsourced manual labor and textile work to England. By the 18th century, the Industrial Revolution erupted in Britain. Human productivity skyrocketed.
What followed is well-known: science advanced rapidly (fueled by better tools and higher productivity), forming the foundation of modern industry.
The next major revolutions came with computers, the internet, and now, artificial intelligence.
Yet so far, AI has not brought about a transformative leap on the scale of the Industrial Revolution.
Humanity is yearning for a breakthrough—a leap to the next level.
Even with today’s vast scientific workforce, sophisticated tools, and a flood of publications and ideas, we seem unable to take that crucial next step. Why?
My answer is: energy and materials science.
Let’s set aside the many emerging and niche fields and look at the three mainstream cutting-edge areas: Artificial Intelligence, Nuclear Fusion, and Quantum Computing.
AI depends fundamentally on computing power—which can be supercharged by quantum computing. But quantum computing itself requires massive amounts of energy, which ideally would come from controlled nuclear fusion. And with powerful AI, scientific breakthroughs in all domains would accelerate.
In this way, the three are deeply intertwined. A major breakthrough in any one of them could accelerate progress in the others.
So where does room-temperature superconductivity fit in? Wouldn’t controlled nuclear fusion have an even bigger impact? Why not pour all our resources into fusion?
In my view, controlled nuclear fusion still has a very long road ahead—from theoretical feasibility to practical technology to large-scale application. A breakthrough within decades seems unlikely.
Room-temperature superconductivity, on the other hand, is a more realistic near-term substitute. Even if it doesn’t create energy from nothing, it can dramatically reduce the losses in energy use.
Compared to fusion, superconductivity has a higher starting point. We already have well-understood theories for low-temperature superconductors, and experimental samples of high-temperature superconductors exist—what’s missing is a solid theoretical explanation. Although there have been theoretical attempts to explain the mechanism of high-temperature superconductivity, a widely accepted unified theory is still lacking
If theoretical physicists can uncover the mechanisms behind high-temperature superconductors, maybe we can generalize the principle and predict materials that are superconductive at room temperature and standard pressure. I don’t know for sure—but I believe this is far more achievable than fusion.
Also, current research into room-temperature superconductors is somewhat like alchemy: experimental physicists try countless combinations of elements, reactions, and tests. This is precisely where AI can play a powerful role. With models and computational power, AI could predict promising materials, helping us get closer to the real thing.
While many call this a revolution in materials science, I believe it’s more than that—it’s a revolution in productivity. Room-temperature superconductors might find common use in power delivery, magnetic levitation, and other applications. But on a deeper level, they could supercharge our productivity and computing capabilities, just like the steam engine did in the Industrial Revolution.
To sum up, I believe room-temperature superconductivity is the most achievable breakthrough that can push humanity to the next stage. Once realized, it will supercharge AI, quantum computing, and other frontier fields. And perhaps, from that new vantage point, we may finally be able to take on humanity’s ultimate challenge: controlled nuclear fusion.