IN London鈥檚 Science Museum, a working version of Charles Babbage鈥檚
Difference Engine has pride of place in its computer exhibition. Babbage鈥檚
prototype was never built in his day, but it was recreated in 1991. Fascinated
by this resurrected icon, the essays in Cultural Babbage use the Difference
Engine to discuss the relationship between arts and science. They range from
the intriguing, such as Alex Pang鈥檚 examination of the Cold War origins of the
geodesic dome, to the eccentric.
The most interesting contributions deal with an SF novel by William Gibson
and Bruce Sterling about an alternative Victorian era: the Difference Engine
successfully built, but only in this Victorian Britain as an integral part of
a social revolution.
In their essays, Tom Paulin and Neil Belton demonstrate how political
conservatism has encouraged a deep-rooted hostility to science. Despite being
the first industrial nation, science in Britain has been regarded with
suspicion by those in power. The Promethean powers of invention are feared as
levelling forces that could sweep away inherited privilege and deference.
Scientific procedures are far too rational and, worst of all, continental in
their precision.
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Echoing the analysis of Will Hutton (author of The State We鈥檙e In) and
other 鈥淣ew Labour鈥� gurus, Paulin and Belton believe that the relative and
absolute decline of British manufacturing industry has been caused by the
semifeudal political system defended by English conservatism.
Their contributions and other key essays champion a 鈥渞epublican science鈥�
combining technical innovation with political change. Jon Katz, for example,
demonstrates the relevance of Tom Paine鈥檚 republican politics in the age of
the Internet.
This use of Babbage鈥檚 Difference Engine as the symbol of 鈥渞epublican
science鈥� is not without difficulties. Simon Shaffer shows how Babbage promoted
the idea that the Difference Engine possessed 鈥渁rtificial intelligence鈥�.
Babbage was attracted to this deception because it concealed the human labour
involved in the machine鈥檚 construction. He could never bring himself to
acknowledge his dependence on the skills of engineers. So, far from being a
model for 鈥渞epublican science鈥�, the story of the Difference Engine could be
seen as a prime example of how archaic class prejudices accelerated the
industrial decline of England. Whether real or imagined, says Shaffer, we need
to free ourselves from all varieties of 鈥淰ictorian values鈥� if we are to
realise the democratic potential of scientific modernism.