Alternative Babbage Timeline

In our attempts to define SteamPunk, we compared it to its companion, CyberPunk, to decide what it was all about. One common factor was that they study the relationship of society to technology. The nineteenth century is a perfect setting because of the rapid growth of industry and the powerful effect it had on society. The Luddite movement shows to what extremes people went to oppose technology, and what extremes the government would go to suppress such opposition. What then if Charles Babbage had been successful in constructing an Analytical Engine? What might the social repercussions have been?

Charles Babbage has been rediscovered not only as an inventor of modern computing, but also as an economist with a keen understanding of the Industrial Age. While working on his Difference Engine, he did considerable research on manufacturing, visiting factories and workshops to discover their methods and hopefully learn some methods that might help in the construction of his Engine. The result of that research was a book, Economy of Machinery and Manufactures in which he attempts to present not only the results of his research, but also suggestions for the improvement of the manufacturing process. Babbage focuses on the division of labor as a key means of improving efficiency in the factory. Much of nineteenth century manufacturing was still based on craftsmen, skilled individuals who worked a project from start to finish. Babbage, as had Adam Smith before him, observed that manufacturing could be broken into components or phases, each of which required a different degree of skills. Whereas a craftsmen got the same pay, usually a higher level pay, for working a whole project, many elements could be performed by unskilled or semi-skilled laborers for considerably less money. The true craftsmen would be reserved for only those parts of the project that truly required their skills. In this way, more items can be manufactured at less cost. Further, Babbage felt that investments in machinery that could flawlessly and continually execute some phases of the project could further decrease cost by eliminating human workers altogether.

Babbage came very close to formulating the sort of assembly-line process that would revolutionize manufacturing.

While other machines took on the labor of the human body, the Babbage Engines took on the labor of the human mind. Babbage proposed that a division of labor of mental "work" could also be made. Such a thing had been accomplished by one Monsieur Prony of France, who had been tasked with producing logaritmic and trigonometric tables to aid France's transition to the decimal system. Prony designated three levels of intellectual skill into which the project could be divided. Babbage uses this project as an example of where a "calculating engine" could be effectively employed. The 60 to 80 "computers' (persons who perform computations) could be replaced be a single machine. The Analytical Engine even further expanded the ability to replace human minds.

Charles Babbage was certain that he had designed a "Mechanical Intelligence," in that his machine was capable of taking in data, processing it and making decisions based on the outcome of sub-processing. We realize today that the Engine, as our computers, would have been no more intelligent than the Formulae put into them, thus the intelligence lies in the Analyst (programmer), not the Engine. At the time, however, Babbage and others felt that they had captured the essence of intellect.

If the replacement of unskilled and semi-skilled workers by machines caused riots, what might the realization of Artificial Intelligence resulted in? I imagine it would be comparable to the strong reaction to Charles Darwin's Origin of Species. The combination of Machine Intelligence and Man's close relation to animals would have been devasating to the Victorian mind set and would likely cause rioting, not among the workers, but among the intelligentsia and the devoutly religious.

Karl Marx felt that the modern factory was dehumanizing. According to Nathan Rosenberg, Marx draws heavily on Economy of Machinery and Manufactures and refers to it in Das Kapital. However, he drew from the material a completely opposite conclusion from Babbage. Where Babbage saw the minimizing of the workers skill, division of labor and employment of machines as an efficient means to increase production, Marx saw it as deriving the worker and degrading him into no more than a component of a machine. If Marx had had an Analytical Engine to consider, he know doubt would have considered it the ultimate exploitation, taking away from man the one power he possessed over machines and animals.

Making a SteamPunk Campaign

If we bring all these elements together, we have a great foundation for a SteamPunk campaign. The campaign can be run from various perspectives and can be designed with various levels of historical authenticity, but a complete exploration of the repercussions of machine computing in science, technology and society can quickly become mind-boggling.

One thing to consider when designing a campaign is that reality is shaped by perceptions. Today, we take computers for granted. They are everywhere. Some people are not impressed by their abilities, others are awed. We have seen that society adapts to them and where computers eliminate some jobs others are created. But in the Vistorian era, the perception would likely have been different. And it is the difference in the perception of computing that makes room for excitement.

Keeping the campaign more historical, the Analytical Engine should be no more powerful than a current programmable calculator. It received input from punched cards and generated output on cards or perhaps paper by means of a typing machine. The dynamics of a Luddite movement against the Engines would come from the public's perception of the Engines' capabilites rather than the reality.

Set later in the century, campaign dynamics could posutlate an authoritarian-like regime that uses Hollerith's Census Engine, which can store and retrieve data on every citizen, as a basis for a mandatory identification system. Players may be protestors who oppose the invasion of privacy or police who root out criminal elements using modern tools of Analysis

In a more imaginative campaign, Analytical Engines may turn out to be more powerful that originally conceived. They could form the foundation for an international network of Engines exchanging information and putting more power into the hands of the Industrialists. Individuals from all backgrounds may protest the construction and use of Engines, violently or politically. Players may be those who oppose the Engines and execute raids on places they operate. The Players maybe hackers and their associates who practice espionage against the Engines and their Masters.

Of course, Analyical Engines may simply be background in a broader campaign. Other things to consider are the other areas of research that could be affected by computing power, such as physics. The foundation of quantum physics was being set by the end of the century. How much faster might it have developed with Engine power to aid in some of the mathematics? How much sooner might the Atomic Bomb have developed.

Below is a descriptive alternative history for use in any campaign that may want to use Babbage's Engines.

History

Charles Babbage was born in 1791, the son of a banker. He took an early interest in algebra and became a brilliant mathematician and one of the founders of the Astronomical Society. A key problem in the practical application of mathematics was the production of tables used for navigation and astronomy. These table were produced by "computers," people who tediously calculated each entry. These extensive tables then had to be laboriously verified.

In 1822, Babbage proposed a mechanical devise that would calculate and print the tables. In 1823, Babbage met with the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who gave Babbage a grant to proceed. Babbage brought in Master Engineer Joseph Clement and the work began in Clement's workshop. Work proceeded for six years, but became bogged down by arguments between the two men over ownership of tools, hardware and designs. The Prime Minister, the Duke of Wellington, was persuaded to intervene and granted the project more money, nationalized it hired Clement as a government employee. Despite that, arguments continued when Babbage decided that he wanted to move the project to his house on Dorset Street where he had built a workshop. Clement refused to move and the project died completely by 1834. By this time, Babbage had come up with a new idea. He now proposed what he called an Analytical Engine. The Analytical Engine would be a much more powerful machine, capable of storing a thousand numbers of up to fifty digits in its memory and performing calculations to 20 decimal places and to a sixth order difference. Furthermore, this machine would be programmable.

Babbage recruited C. G. Jarvis, a former draughtsman of Clement, to begin design of the new engine. Further aid to the cause cam from Augusta Ada Byron, the Countess Loveless. The only daughter of Lord Byron, she intelligent and strong-willed, and one of the few who saw the true potential of the Analytical Engine. She wrote the first Formulae (programs) for the Analytical Engine. She helped promote the project through a campaign of well-thought out papers, often in collaboration with other engineers and scientists.

Alternate History Begins Here

In 1845, Prince Albert took a personal interest in the project and met with both Babbage and Lovelace. The Prince consulted with the Prime Minister, Robert Peel, who had been considering an appeal from Babbage for funding for his new Engine. Despite misgivings of some of Peel's advisors and vocal opposition from Babbage's Nemesis, Reverend Richard Sheepshanks, a secretary of the Royal Astronomical Society, Prince Albert encouraged Peel to provide additional funding for the project, contributing some of his own money. However, the Prince-Consort insisted that a working model be produced by 1850. Fortunately, Babbage and Jarvis had completed the designs and Babbage had managed to acquire the few completed components and model of the Difference Engine. Engineers were hired, including a team from Italy due to the interest and influence of L. F. Menabrea. With the help of James Nasmyth, who in 1839 had developed the steam hammer, they developed a die system to mass-produce the numerous gears and cams required for the machine. The team realized the most of the components could be produced identically in batches and then assembled by semi-skilled labor, greatly reducing the cost and increasing the speed of the project. Babbage developed what he called the "assembly line" process.

The project quickly outgrew Babbage's Dorset Street workshop. Indeed, as the pieces came together, it was realized that a decision needed to be made where to assemble the finished Engine, which would be quite large and difficult to move. It is uncertain who decided it should reside in the Bank of England, but it was there that it finally ended up, in basement room. The Engineers were set up in the Bank to assemble the Engine from the sub-assemblies that were put together in Babbage's workshop from components manufactured using Nasmyth's die presses, which were being marketed to various industries.

The Analytical Engine was completed on February 14th, 1850. The first test proved a success and succeeding, brought the next demand from Prince Albert. In 1848, Prince Albert had developed an idea for a Great Exhibition of Industry and Trade to be held in 1851. Despite a lack of interest in Parliament, Albert was able to generate interest among industrialists and gentlemen and succeeded in getting Government, as well as private, backing. The Prince-Consort decided that the Analytical Engine should be a central display in the Exhibition and asked Babbage how difficult it would be to set up the Engine in the Exhibit Hall that would be built and create a set of Formulae that would be of interest to Industry and Trade and the General Public, as well as Academia. Babbage consulted with his Engineers and determined that with the skills and processes they had developed, the could produce a new Engine in time for the Exhibition and assemble it directly in the Exhibit Hall, rather than move the original.

Ada Lovelace was tasked to train a team of Analysts to develop useful Formulae for the Engine. On May Day, Queen Victoria rode in a procession to the Crystal Palace and officially opened the Great Exhibition at the Crystal Fountain. From there, she was lead to the Analytical Hall where the giant framework or ornate iron supported the elaborate clockwork brass and pewter gears, partially screen by ornate metalwork. The steam engine driving it was running outside the hall, transmitting power by means of a drive shaft running through the glass wall. Ada Lovelace, although weakened by the cervical cancer that would kill her the next year, was on hand to feed in a series of punched cards for a specially prepared Formula.

After the elaborate and loud interaction of gears and cams, the Engine's Curved Line Drawing Device began working, in time producing a large line portrait of the Queen. With the movement of a lever, the Engine produced another smaller, but otherwise identical drawing to great applause. Such portraits, made to order were sold throughout the Exhibition, but the true power was demonstrated to visiting scientists and industrialists. Astronomers and Mathematicians showed the most interest. Industrialists were keenly interested in the mass production parts and the assembly line process of manufacturing the device. Babbage also began presenting speeches on the employment of Engine-controlled machinery in factories.

The publication of Charles Darwin's Origin of Species was the final straw.

In 1861, in response to continued problems, the Government instituted mandatory registration of citizens and issued photographic identification cards. Use the techniques developed by Andre Disderi in 1854 that lead to the cartes-de-viste craze, multiple photos of individuals were taken, to which were added name, date of birth and registered address. The copies of the card were kept on file and the data entered into the new Central DataBank. Morse's teletypes were installed in police stations around England, allowing them to research any individual. Police created reports that were filed by teletype, to be punched on cards and stored in the DataBank. Additional an after hours curfew was imposed in London. Police were authorized to stop any citizen found on the streets after 2:00 A. M.

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