The Difference Engine by Bruce Sterling
The Difference Engine is a historical fiction narrative centered around the concept of a steam-driven computer created by Charles Babbage in the mid-19th century. Set in a reimagined 1855, the story unfolds through five interconnected iterations that explore the implications of Babbage's invention and its influence on society. The plot introduces Ada Byron, who designs punch cards for a gambling system, setting off a chain of events that intertwines the lives of various characters, including an aging Sybil Gerard and paleontologist Edward Mallory.
As societal upheaval escalates, the characters confront personal and political turmoil, with themes of revolution, identity, and the impact of technology on human life. Each iteration provides a unique lens on the consequences of the difference engine, revealing how pollution and malfunctioning machines lead to chaos and conflict. The narrative culminates in a speculative future where Ada’s programming has evolved to diminish human agency, raising questions about the intersection of technology and free will. This alternate history invites readers to consider the profound effects of innovation on society and the potential perils that accompany technological advancement.
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Subject Terms
The Difference Engine
First published: 1990, in Great Britain (first pb. 1991, in U.S.)
Type of work: Novel
Type of plot: Science fiction—alternate history
Time of work: 1855
Locale: London, England
The Plot
The Difference Engine’s five iterations recall the repetition of subroutines in a computer program. They provide different perspectives on a sequence of events in the year 1855. Charles Babbage has successfully built his difference engine, bringing into being a steam-based information technology. Because the difference engine, a type of computer, historically was not completed, this event becomes the pivot of the alternate history. The plot concerns a set of punch cards created by Ada Byron as a gambling system.
In Iteration One, an aged Sybil Gerard, living in Cherbourg in 1905, remembers January 15, 1855, and her relationship with a doomed opportunist-revolutionary, Mick Radley. Sybil had become a prostitute because her father was hanged as a revolutionary. Her identity is in the police “engines,” preventing her from following another profession. Mick involves her in attempts to get a computer program from the deposed president of Texas, Sam Houston, in his London hotel room. Sybil witnesses an attack on Houston that results in Mick’s death and sends her to France.
Iteration Two introduces Edward Mallory, a famous paleontologist who discovered the “great land leviathan,” or a Brontosaurus, while on a dig in the wilds of Wyoming. On Derby Day, on which both horses and steam-driven vehicles are raced in different heats, he has two momentous experiences. He assists Ada Byron, daughter of the famous Lord Byron who is England’s prime minister, to secure a small case containing punch cards for a computer program, then keeps it for her. He also bets on a steam-car race and wins 400 pounds, a small fortune in that time. Subsequently, he is recruited by L. Oliphant, a special detective, to follow a sociology project. He is also set upon by thugs.
In Iteration Three, Mallory suffers further attacks, including one to his rooms in the Palace of Paleontology. Oliphant sends him to the Department of Criminology to identify his attackers. His letter to Ada Byron advises her that he has hidden her case of punch cards in the skull of his Brontosaurus in the British Museum.
Iteration Four describes the societal chaos in London resulting from rampant pollution that has fouled the Thames and the subway system. Mallory’s family is now also under attack by revolutionaries. His two brothers, one a steam engineer and one on military leave from India, arrive in London. Together they locate the leader of the revolutionaries, a homicidal woman named Francis Bartlett and her henchman, Captain Swing. They manage to kill him but not her. A “cleansing rain” clears out the pollution and ends the social disintegration.
In Iteration Five, Oliphant collates the various deaths and attacks that result from Bartlett’s attempts to obtain the punch cards. Several of her henchmen are killed, and her attempt fails. Nevertheless, the malfunctioning of the Grand Napoleon, the French difference engine, is presented as the precursor to malfunctions in the English engine. Both failures are attributed to pollution. The text suggests another explanation, that the malfunctions occur because Ada’s faulty program is run.
The final section, MODUS, is a pastiche of individuals using or used by the idea of a difference engine and an analytical engine. It projects the alternate history into the future, in which Ada’s program has run rampant and, by 1991, has virtually eliminated human agency.
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