  The importance of dissipation engineering ranges from universal quantum
computation to non-equilibrium quantum thermodynamics. In recent years, more
and more theoretical and experimental studies have shown the relevance of this
topic for circuit quantum electrodynamics, one of the major platforms in the
race for a quantum computer. This article discusses how to simulate thermal
baths by inserting resistive elements in networks of superconducting qubits.
Apart from pedagogically reviewing the phenomenological and microscopic models
of a resistor as thermal bath with Johnson-Nyquist noise, the paper introduces
some new results in the weak coupling limit, showing that the most common
examples of open quantum systems can be simulated through capacitively coupled
superconducting qubits and resistors. The aim of the manuscript, written with a
broad audience in mind, is to be both an instructive tutorial about how to
derive and characterize the Hamiltonian of general dissipative superconducting
circuits with capacitive coupling, and a review of the most relevant and
topical theoretical and experimental works focused on resistive elements and
dissipation engineering.
